The Hidden Valor
by I'mAGeekNotANerd
Summary: When Thorin finds an orphaned baby elf in the woods, his friends and family coerce him into adopting her. Now, Kai, an elf raised as a dwarf, joins her beloved dwarf family and their company in their quest to Erebor. But at the road's long end, can she hope to find comfort in death and desolation? Can she pick up the fragments of her life and carry on? slight AU due to OC.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

The air was cold as the icy wind blew through the white, skeletal forest. The stiff timbers creaked and groaned under the strain, filling the woods with a strange sort of lament. A crooning, eery song of nature. The snow that coated the ground was pristine and glittering with the reflection of the moonlight and starlight filtering through the starched fingers reaching for the sky. It was a serene night, though something menacing hung in the air, a tension that could only be described as foreboding.

Several shrieks that seemed to come from the depths of hell filled the icy atmosphere above the song of the trees. The tension in the air seemed to grow exponentially and a scent of blood filled the air.

Two tall figures broke through the undergrowth wearing dark navy blue cloaks. Both were tall and lithe with blonde hair, though one was female and the other was male. They took turns glancing fearfully over their shoulders with pale, smooth complexions marred by terror. The woman's wide eyes showed her fear as did her frantic, desperate hold on a small bundled form close to her chest. Her husband's mood was defined by the cut across his forehead that bled profusely down into his eyes.

"Come, Ánië! We must hurry!" the man whispered, guiding her through the tangle of plants to duck behind a large fallen tree. "Remain quiet. They shall pass us by."

"Angrod, they will find us! They killed the horses in the most ruthless way and _they_ were protected through the grace of the Last Homely House of Lord Elrond! We were too, but what will that do?" she protested, nearly in tears. "I will not allow our little Maera to be taken by them to be killed just as brutally!"

"Ánië, be quiet!" he said furtively, and slowly rose enough to see over the top of the log in an attempt to get a look at their assailants. A startled cry was jerked out of his mouth though as an orc arrow embedded itself in his throat, and he fell to the ground gasping and gurgling on his own blood. Ánië screamed and got to her feet, trying to turn and run as well.

The twang of arrows and the joyful screams of orcs rent the air and the elf fell to the floor, back bristling with arrows. The whooping cries of their killers carried out into the night, and people in the nearby town shivered in their beds, held their children more closely, and locked the doors.

Save one.

"Ooh! Are those orcs, uncle?" an eager young voice asked from before the fire. "Are you gunna go and fight 'em, like you did in the stories?"

"No, Kíli. One doesn't go out looking for a fight," Thorin admonished from where he was sitting on a stool, reading his book by the fire. "And orcs are far from being a simple item for childhood games. They are dangerous and violent. Fíli, do you not tell your brother these things?" he admonished and the little blond boy looked up from where he was whittling away a wooden figurine, completely oblivious to the situation around him until another orc cry shattered the peace, followed by a different scream.

A scream that sent shivers up and down even Thorin's spine.

"Uncle Thorin!" Fíli cried, dropping his whittling, and the adult closed his book with a snap and pulled the two boys into his arms. They gripped his arms and back tightly in their fear, fists making small knots out of the leather and fur.

"Sh...it's okay little ones," he said softly. "It's just the wind playing tricks," he lied. Suddenly, a series of rapid knocks sounded at the door, making Kíli squeak in fear. Fíli started and grabbed his uncle's hair even tighter, making the adult's eyes smart.

"Boys, let go. I must go and answer the door," he said softly, trying to pry them off of him.

"But what if it's orcs?" Kíli whispered fearfully and Thorin laughed.

"Orcs...wouldn't knock, Kíli," he assured him and slowly managed to free himself from his nephews' merciless grips and sighed in mild exasperation as their tight holds were turned on each other as they huddled on the floor. He reached the door just as his visitor began knocking again. Muttering to himself about the impatience of humans, he jerked the door open.

"Balin," he said in mild surprise as the dwarf pulled him outside. "What is it?"

"You heard them. Why do you think I'm here?" he asked and gave a stern look to the two children who were trying to sneak in closer to hear their conversation. At the old warrior's glare, they scampered back a few feet to a safer distance.

"I'll wake Dís so she can watch her boys." Balin nodded in agreement and moved off to join his brother outside. Thorin walked back in the house and knocked on his sister's door waiting impatiently as it opened.

"What is it, Thorin?" she asked, blinking sleep out of her eyes as she saw his stiff demeanor.

"Orcs. We have reason to believe they've waylaid some people out in the woods so we are going to inspect. I need you to watch Kíli and Fíli." She nodded and walked out into the warm sitting room.

"Mommy!" Fíli cried in fear and ran over to his mother, open arms held up to her.

"Oh, come here little one," she whispered and took him into her arms. "Uncle Thorin is going off to check on something with Mister Balin and Mister Dwalin. We're going to wait patiently for them to come back, okay?"

"Sure," the blonde one answered and Kíli, out of habit of doing the same as his brother, nodded. Thorin nodded and picked up his sword from where it was leaning against the door frame before walking out to his comrades, the forest in their sights. Once the door closed, Dís led her boys before the hearth and began telling them a story. She couldn't help but be afraid as to what they would find in the trees.

* * *

Outside, Thorin, Dwalin, and Balin treaded softly through the skeletal wood, making sure that they didn't make any unnecessary noise. The torch that the half bald dwarf held high cast enough light that they could see for several meters ahead of them. The ground before them was troubled, the snow disturbed in what could only be described as a mad struggle. Then, a soft noise of disgust from Thorin drew their attention upwards.

"In the name of Aulë..." Balin said softly and they looked on at the pair of brutally ravaged horses lying in the white snow before them, blood turning the ground bright red. "Where're the riders?" he asked and Thorin didn't respond at first. Then Dwalin answered.

"No longer of this world, judging by the screams." The three of them forged on through the snow, avoiding the bloodied carcasses. The trail the two riders had left wasn't hard to follow, nor was the following pathway of the orcs.

"They were probably human," Thorin commented as they continued on. "There." They stopped their procession as Dwalin's hoisted torch cast light onto the blood covered scene before them. Two figures lay stretched out on the ground behind the shelter of a large fallen tree and their blood flowed from their stiff bodies in a slow trickle. They had mostly bled out by this point, Balin realized and sighed sadly. This was no way to go.

Thorin walked forward, Dwalin going with him to provide light. Suddenly though, both stopped and the leader of their people said in a disgusted tone,

"They are elves." Balin trudged forward and they looked down on the finely tipped ears, fair features, and long blonde hair. "Most likely a couple." With that Thorin turned around and began walking off.

"Is that it then?" Balin asked. "Thorin, they were still living beings! Are we going to leave them here for the carrion?"

"The elves didn't help us with our dead," he protested darkly and Balin shook his head.

"This isn't a war, Thorin. These elves did nothing to wrong you. This is the equivalent of a back alley _murder_," he said sternly. Thorin however ignored his friend's words and continued walking, stepping over the log as he left the area.

A soft cry drifted up to his ears. Startled, Thorin looked down and found a small angelic face with wide brown eyes looking up at him from a hidden crevice in the log.

"Great Aulë!" he proclaimed and stepped back in surprise, jumping slightly at the sudden appearance of another living thing practically right under his feet. His expression must have been alarming since Dwalin immediately tightened the grip on his weapon.

"What is it?" Balin asked stepping forward and looking into the log. "Oh..." Thorin looked around at the dead elves on the ground at his feet and at the baby tucked away in the safety of the fallen tree.

"They saved their child with their own lives," he said, neither showing support for the action or disregard for it.

"Well, take it out of there, Thorin," Dwalin instructed and the dwarf looked at his companion, taken aback.

"I will not touch an elf," he responded, voice stiff. Balin gave his friend a look.

"She's an innocent child, Thorin. She'll die if you do not take her in," he responded and Thorin looked at the white bearded warrior gravely.

"You are asking me to hold the offspring of my enemy," Thorin protested. Balin responded without hestiation.

"Yes. Because it is a _child_, Thorin. And this child has done nothing to you," he added and Thorin still stood there gazing at the helpless form hidden away in the frosty cavity. "For the love of all the gold beneath Erebor, _pick the baby up, Thorin!" _Balin insisted.

"You pick it up," Thorin retorted, a child like response in and of itself. However when no response was forthcoming, the dark haired dwarf reluctantly reached into the crevice and gently grabbed the bundled baby, lifting it out into the cold.

"A..ta..." the little one cooed, reaching out and gently fastening a hand in Thorin's beard, making the dwarf's eyes harden at the insult of having his hair touched by an elf. "Ata..."

"What's it saying?" Dwalin asked in his normally harsh way, lifting the torch in order to cast more light on the situation and Balin smiled, breath forming a cloud as he stepped closer to the adult and child.

"I think, dear brother, it is saying _atar,_" he answered and Thorin looked up sharply, jerking his beard from the baby's grip and making the child cry.

"Atar?" he asked, affronted. "I am _not_ its father," he said seriously and tried to ignore the rising pitch of scream in his arms. "I am _not_ your father. And stop crying!" he demanded, looking down into the infants face. The cry was cut short and a small smile graced the fine features as the elf reached up and gently tapped his nose, letting her tiny hand trace down his cheek to fasten in his beard once more. She giggled slightly and pulled herself close into his leather and fur collar, hiding her red nose and cheeks from the biting cold.

"Atar," she said once more and Thorin sighed in angry frustration, turning around to face his two companions.

"This...doesn't leave this hallow, do you understand?"

"The child or the fact that the child seems to think you're her father, Thorin," Balin asked, a twinkle in his eyes and Thorin gave him a look.

"In an ideal world, _both_. But seeing as I can't abandon this _thing_ without you chasing me halfway to Mordor for it, the second." They stood in silence for a few moments when Dwalin asked a question.

"What's her name?" Both of the other men turned to look at him with eyebrows raised. "Well we can't very well continue calling her _it_, can we?"

"_It_ will remain as an _it_," Thorin responded and began walking back to the town. "Once you name _it,_ you get attached to _it_." Balin and Dwalin watched him walk off, skillfully carrying the child from years of experience with his nephews, though he looked as though he wanted to proceed carrying it at arms length from himself.

"He's got a point," the younger of the two brothers admitted. Balin nodded and the two continued on in the steps of their leader.

* * *

Dís was just getting her sons to fall asleep on the hearth. Kíli was drifting in and out of consciousness, wrapped in his nine year older brother's protective hold, and blearily watching the flames dancing about before his eyes in the grate. Fíli was completely asleep, his arms clasped tightly about his seven year old, dark haired sibling. The two of them were curled up around each other like two kittens, their mother reflected: all they needed was a ball of yarn tangled about them and the image would be complete. She slowly stopped singing as she heard footsteps approaching their door, stood up, and was half-way to the entrance when the door opened to reveal three snow dusted dwarves and her thoroughly unamused brother holding what appeared to be a screaming baby in his arms.

"Oh my!" Dís cried and hurried over to her sibling, Thorin gladly passing the baby off into her care. "Where did you get this little one?"

"Her parents were killed by the orcs we heard. Elves," Thorin grunted as he moved off to the kitchen to wash his hands of the contamination he had just been exposed to.

"I hope you didn't just leave their bodies there," Dís said slowly, looking up from where she was lightly bouncing the baby to hush it. Thorin cleared his throat and continued to wash his hands. "Thorin..." she said warningly and Balin and Dwalin quickly bowed to the man before making a hasty retreat to the door. "You did!"

"They are elves, Dís. There was no way I was touching them."

"You carried their child here well enough!" Dís protested.

"Balin made me," he returned. When her brother continued to ignore the topic at hand she walked to her bedroom and slipped the dozing child into the crib she had used for her sons. Now she could come back with fists flying.

"Thorin! Give the people some decency in death and give them a proper burial!"

"They are _elves, _Dís! I don't expect you to understand my particular hatred towards them - "

"Oh that's rich, coming from my own _brother_! Of COURSE I know why you hate them, but that was ages ago!" At the hearth Kíli and Fíli slowly opened their eyes to watch their mother and uncle shout at each other.

"Why they mad?" Kíli asked his brother, still half-asleep, and before Fíli could give an answer a soft cry of an infant drifted to their ears. "Wha' was that?"

"I dunno," Fíli admitted and both carefully got to their feet and walked over to their mother's room, trying to make as little noise as possible. If either adult caught them, they would be sent straight off to bed without knowing what this mysterious noise was.

And for two inquisitive young boys that just was not acceptable.

The cry was getting steadily louder and they realized whatever this strange intruder was, it was in their mother's bedroom. "Careful, Kíli. I should go first," the blonde one said seriously and pulled his younger, accident prone sibling away from the door and slowly walked in, though his dark haired brother wasn't far behind.

"It sounds like it's comin' from o'er there," the elder continued and took his little brother's hand in his as they slowly approached the crib by their mother's bed. The noise was definitely coming from there and the crying was interrupted by pitiful hiccups and sniffs. "It sounds hurt."

"Or sad," Kíli said, as equally morose sounding as the bawling that issued from the bassinet. Slowly both brothers simultaneously went up on tip-toe to gaze down in the crib. The crying slowly stopped and the watery brown eyes that gazed tearfully up at them shone with happiness as she giggled.

" 'S a baby," Fíli said, almost as though he were disappointed.

"Mae..." she cooed, and the boy frowned, looking up at his brother just in time to see him reaching out to touch the baby on the head.

"Kíli don't do that!" Fíli snapped, throwing his arm out to grab Kíli's wrist, stopping the younger boy's hand half-way on its journey to touch the downey soft blonde hair.

"Why not?" he asked belligerently.

"It's an elf," Fíli responded as though it were common knowledge and the younger scrunched up his nose and withdrew his hand rapidly.

"Ewww..." However, the reaction seemed half-meant. Curiosity was taking over and Fíli didn't stop his brother this time as Kíli reached in and touched the baby's forehead with a single tentative finger. The girl fell silent with her insensible coos and looked at the strange thing on her skin with crossed eyes, making the brothers giggle. Then, she reached up and batted around at Fíli's longer hair as it dangled into her crib, tiny fist fastening gently around a small blonde braid. Something warm and fuzzy began spreading in the dwarfling's chest at the gesture and he leaned over a little farther so she could get a better grip.

* * *

"Thorin, I will not allow you to abandon this child on a human's door step!" Dís nearly shouted and Thorin threw his arms up in the air.

"What do you expect me to do with it, I'm not going to keep it anywhere near me!"

"Then I will!" Dís proclaimed. "I'm sure Kíli and Fíli would love having a sister - "

"She's an ELF! What don't you grasp about this, Dís?!" Thorin cried, exasperated. "There would be fundamental problems raising them together! Aging differences, intellect, psychology, skills, biological contrasts! It just wouldn't work!"

"You're being stubborn," Dís said simply as she warmed some milk in a small pot over the fire. "She's a little baby girl. And if you don't want her, I'll take care of her."

"You do that and I will never come within a hundred kilometers of this house," Thorin threatened, but his sister rolled her eyes.

"Don't think I'm going to believe that for a second. You love your nephews too much to do that," she scoffed. Thorin grumbled something to himself that clearly translated into something about her being right. "Now, are you through being a stubborn jerk?" she asked after a long silence. Thorin glared at her and opened his mouth to say something more about the matter but before he could proceed, a different noise interrupted him.

Small footsteps.

Dís, who was facing the doorway and her brother, saw what was behind him before he did and she smiled, slyly covering her mouth and turning away to prepare the milk for the infant. Almost dreading what was behind him, Thorin turned around and fought the urge to grind the heels of his palms into his forehead.

Fíli was standing in the threshold of the kitchen, awkwardly - yet more or less correctly - holding the baby elf in his arms. She was asleep and had her hands fastened on the braids that ran down either side of his head like reins. He was smiling and had an innocent expression on his face that was mirrored on the wide-eyed features of his younger brother, who, as always, was by his side. A slightly awkward staring contest and silence stretched out between the uncle and nephews.

"Can we keep it?" Kíli finally asked with puppy dog eyes, his older brother giving Thorin the same expression. His answer was definitive and swift.

"_No_."

"Pleeeeeeaaaaaaasssssseeeeee?" his two boys chorused and Dís fought the urge to join in with her sons. Thorin rubbed his forehead as he tried to drown out the noise of annoying children and finally relented.

"FINE!" he cried and the two boys fell into eager silence. "Fine...you can keep it." Fíli smiled protectively down at the sleeping form in his arms and Kíli went on tip toe to look down into her sleeping face.

"We 'ave a _sister_, Fíli!" he whispered in awe, and from that moment on the three were inseparable.


	2. Chapter 2: Acceptance

Thorin woke up early the next morning to a cold frost permeating the entire house to the point where his soft breaths formed clouds of condensation even when he was sleeping. It was a strange sensation that was rather uncommon in his sister's home: the fire was usually always burning at this hour and the warmth of the flames heated the whole residence. Now though it was cold and quiet. The quietness was also out of place, now that he thought about it. Kíli and Fíli were often awake and running about the bedrooms and halls killing orcs and fighting off imaginary foes.

But there was no noise. No sign that anyone was awake, though they should be at this point. Dís often started her days early so there was no reason for the house to be cold and empty.

"Don't leave me," a soft voice said from the doorway and Thorin sat bolt upright in his bed, throwing the sheets away to vault to his feet. A small girl dressed in a simple, homespun nightgown stood by his half open door, a sad and scared expression on her face. The white cloth was obviously dwarf-made, though she was clearly an elf.

"Who in middle earth are you?" he demanded harshly and the girl started, pulling her arms up to her chest and hunching her shoulders down as though she were trying to shield herself from physical blows.

"Don't leave me," she repeated, still in a defensive position, and Thorin frowned. He had never seen this child before. But there was something familiar about her. Her long hair was blonde, but not _elf_ blonde. It was more like Fíli's. Her eyes were a lucid, clear, brilliant brown that seemed to stare straight into his soul through his very own eyes.

"Who are you?" he asked again and she stared at him with that same desperation.

"Don't leave me," she said again. "Atar, don't leave me." Thorin's eyes snapped open once more and he sat up in his bed with the same speed as in his dream. He took a single deep breath to steady himself and then took stock of his surroundings.

There was no girl to stare accusingly at him from his doorway, no angry charges of blame. The house was warm, though the frost glistened on the window. He could hear his nephews in the room across the hall and Dís could be heard speaking softly to their resident elf and moving about in the kitchen. He slowly let his head fall back against the wall. The dream was disturbing to say the least.

The child he now recognized as an older version of the infant his sister was now caring for. The implications of why he would have that dream worried him. He wasn't abandoning the baby, he told himself. He wasn't. The image of the frightened child and the betrayal in her eyes was stuck in his mind as he changed from his sleepwear to his clothing for a day of work in the forge.

It was then that he realized that his dream was more of a vision. His own mind was at war over his treatment of the defenseless girl, and looking back on it it seemed as though he had been a bit premature in his treatment of her. It had been uncalled for to say the least. He carefully opened and closed the door of his room and walked past his nephews' room to the kitchen where Dís was cooking. The baby elf was in her arms, squirming around and even her brother could see that the woman was getting annoyed with the infant.

"Just stop your moving about, little one," she sighed, exasperated. "I put you down and you cry. I pick you up and you want to get away from me!" Thorin gave a slightly wry smile and walked up to the pair.

"Let me take her for a bit," he offered and Dís turned to stare at him in surprise.

"My brother voluntarily offering to hold an elvish child? What happened?" she demanded, but smiled good-naturedly and passed the girl into his arms. She laughed at the sight of her "ata," as she put it, and immediately stilled in his hold. "Well look at the two of you. The way you looked at her just then would make anyone think you were her father," she teased and Thorin looked up from the elf's dark brown eyes and cleared his throat in preparation. He moved off and faced the fire, the child protectively wrapped up in his arms.

"I would not leave you," he assured the dozing infant in a soft undertone. "I _will_ _not_ leave you."

"What was that?" Dís asked, genuinely curious. Thorin continued to stand there and only turned to face his sibling when he was ready to start his tale of the night before.

"I had a dream last night that was so vivid it felt as though it were a vision."

"What of?" she asked him, setting the cutting knife down on the counter so she could turn her full attention to her brother.

"Her. Except it was when she was older. A child. She was telling me not to leave her. But she sounded so scared. So betrayed. And the worst part was during the dream I realized I had almost left her. She was so defenseless and I actually..." Thorin stopped, marveling at his own cold-bloodedness. "I actually wanted to leave her there to die." Dís nodded.

"Well, glad to see that there is still some heart left in you," she said, half teasing, half serious. "It's natural for you to abhor elves, Thorin. But there comes a time when we have to grow out of your grudges. It's not healthy." He gave a single laugh and looked down at the child again. "What are we going to name her?" Thorin shrugged and then realized what he had just inadvertently agreed to.

"Well then, I guess it's settled: we're keeping her."

"Of course we are. Now, think about names while you're working at the forge. The boys and I will take good care of her." He passed the child back into his sister's caring arms and left the house. Now was time for him to turn every thought to his work, to the forge. But on his way he reported the murder of the elves in the woods, trying to be as unemotional as possible about it. But his heart clenched as he realized that the elves he had disregarded as nothing were the parents of the child he now cared for. And he worried if he would see the dead in her eyes as she grew older.

* * *

The whole day Thorin couldn't seem to get the sight of the infant out of his mind, nor the haunting gaze of the girl in his dream. He was feeling as though the baby was controlling his every thought and he just wanted to focus on the task at hand.

"You're distracted," a voice said from the doorway and he stopped mid-swing to see Balin waiting for him to respond. Thorin set the hammer down on the anvil with a heavy clang and picked up the red hot blade, plunging it into the bucket of cold water so plumes of steam erupted from the wooden container. It was an effect that always gave him satisfaction and the warm water vapor calmed his racing mind. "How is the little girl?"

"She's slept through the night. Dís has been working on making her an established member of the household," Thorin commented, placing the unfinished buck knife back on the anvil to finish cooling.

"And you agree with that?" his old friend asked, slightly incredulous. The leader looked up at the white-bearded dwarf and nodded.

"Yes...I do. She's now a member of the line of Durin. I take her on as my niece, and she shall be raised the same way as Fíli and Kíli," he said firmly and Balin nodded.

"What is her name?" Thorin sighed and went back to hammering. "You still don't know, do you?"

"I'm sure Dís and the boys will have come up with something."

"I'm sure it has evolved past the stage of _it_, though?" Balin asked, a tad too innocently and Thorin glared at him.

* * *

"Delphine?" Kíli made a gagging noise and his brother looked affronted.

"Mommy, that name's _terrible!_" Fíli proclaimed and Dís laughed.

"Oh I know. I just wanted to see if you were paying attention. This is very important," she assured them. "How about Andra? Risa?" The brothers looked at each other and at the little baby sitting in their mom's lap.

"Nah," they both said simultaneously.

"It's too plain," Fíli commented and his brother added something that made their mother look at them in curiosity.

"Yeah. And it doesn't sound like our names." The mother nodded knowingly.

"Oh. You want your sister's name to be close to yours."

"Well, yeah, she's our sister," Fíli said in a tone that clearly established that that was a no brainer. She paused and assumed a thoughtful expression.

"You know, Thorin and I are brother and sister, and our names don't match. Would you have rather had me named Dorin or something like that," she told them but the brothers immediately shook their heads.

"No! But...we want her to have a name like ours!" Kíli proclaimed and the three of them fell into silence. "How 'bout Aeri?"

"No!" Fíli protested. "How about Kinri?"

"Kairi," Kíli countered. Fíli looked half sold on the name but still frowned.

"It's too long," he complained and flopped down on his belly to look at the girl playing with the crudely whittled figurine he had been working on the night before. "Kaira?"

"It needs to end with an 'i' like ours!" Kíli protested vehemently. "And _that_ name is long, too, so don't tell me mine is too long!" The three of them sat in silence when Kíli jumped to his feet, excited.

"KAI!" he shouted and the little girl looked up sharply to smile at him with that silly toothless grin.

"What?" Fíli asked and his younger brother elaborated.

"Her name," he said, tone firm for his age, "is Kai." Dís looked down at the little girl and picked her up so she was "standing" on the adult's folded knees.

"Do you like that? Do you like that name, little Kai?"

" 'Ai..." she repeated in the manner of little babies, reaching out to bat at her mother's hair, and Fíli laughed eagerly.

"She likes it!" he cried and gave his brother a hug. "You named her, Kíli!" He stopped in thought. "Fíli, Kíli, and Kai."

"Fíli, Kíli, and Kai," the dark haired boy repeated, contentedly and walked up to the baby and gave her a gentle hug. "You're our sister now, Kai. An' we'll take care of you," he whispered and Dís smiled proudly at her children. All three of them.

* * *

When Thorin walked up the steps to his sister's home he could hear laughter emerging from the dwelling. It was a comforting sensation, he thought to himself as he walked up the pathway to the front door. He could smell the wood smoke of a fire and that, coupled with the voices of his nephews, painted an image of family and a sedentary life that he seldom felt nowadays. The door opened and Dís smiled down at him and beckoned him forward with a finger before her lips.

"What is it?" he asked and she simply led her brother to the threshold of their living room. The fire was blazing in an effort to combat the cold air of outside. Stretched across the hearth close, enough to the flames to feel the heat, but far enough away to eliminate the possibility of getting burned, were two blankets folded over each other to create a thick pad. Kíli and Fíli were sitting across from each other, cross-legged and on their knees respectively. The blonde boy was waving his arms around in an effort to make his storytelling more elaborate and enjoyable while Kíli and the baby were watching with wide, enraptured eyes. And that was what warmed Thorin's heart:

The intense interest of the elf child.

She was an elf, and it struck Thorin as strange that she would be so entranced by the story of Erebor - he determined after some contemplation that that _was_ the story his oldest nephew was attempting to recreate - with an expression so similar to the faraway look that the two siblings gained when listening to him. It made her seem more dwarf-like with those wide, limpid brown eyes and eager expression. As though she could understand every word said to her.

"An' that's the story of Erebor. We're still gonna take it back, though," Fíli said proudly, catching the baby as she rocked forward from her reclined position against Kíli's chest and stomach. "Did you like the story, Kai?" he asked her, picking her up and standing her up before him. She smiled again at him and reached out to gently grab his braids.

"So her name's Kai," Thorin interrupted and all three children looked around at him.

"You're home!" Fíli said, slightly embarrassed as he realized that his uncle had seen his reenactment of Erebor which had been, in hindsight, abysmal. Kíli smirked at his brother's discomfort

"Ata!" Kai called, relinquishing her hold on one of Fíli's braids to reach out to try and touch Thorin. The dwarf hesitated momentarily and in that moment Kíli had run over, wrapping himself about his uncle's leg, making the adult sigh and roll his eyes. Fíli smiled from where he was sitting with Kai and nodded.

"Yep. Kíli named her," he said, sounding proud. "Mommy said that Kai likes it." At the sound of her name, Kai smiled again and reached out for Thorin, brow puckering. Driven by the pathetically cute expression on her face - and a poke in the back from his sister - he walked over, still dragging Kíli along, and picked up the little girl. She giggled and cooed, burying her face in her "father's" dirty work clothes. Having been freed from the burden of a baby on his lap, Fíli sprang to his feet and jumped up onto his uncle, wrapping his arms and legs around the adult's strong arm so he was hanging there like some sort of tree dwelling creature. Dís smiled at her brother and leaned against the door frame. It made her so happy to see him like this, she reflected. Happy without a care in the world, not thinking of Erebor or vengeance. Just being their uncle. Their family.

"Swing me, uncle!" Fíli begged and Thorin smiled down at the boy, moving his arm up and down as though the boy was no heavier than a feather. Still laughing slightly to himself, the adult walked over to the chair and sat down, being careful not to hit anyone on anything.

"Well then. Hello, little Kai."

"Ata," she said again and continued to hold onto his shirt as if it were the only thing keeping her alive.

"Oh, Fíli go and bring me my work bag," he told his nephew and the little child scampered off into the kitchen and returned with the satchel, holding his arms high above his head so the fabric didn't drag on the ground.

"Here uncle," he said, voice slightly muffled. Thorin smiled.

"Set it on the floor and open it up. I made something for you at the forge today." Fíli looked up eagerly excited. "Well go on. Open it up and see." The child opened the deer skin bag and cautiously reached in, pulling out a beautifully crafted buck knife. He gasped and gazed at it with wide eyes. The metal was perfect, flawless, and glittered like the stars in the night sky. The leather sheath was covered with elaborately carved leaves, vines, and other patterns. It was amazingly perfect.

"Thank you Uncle Thorin!" he said slowly putting the blade back in its safe pocket. "I can't use it though. Not old enough."

"I know," his relative answered and allowed Fíli to join him on his lap, making sure that Kai wasn't jostled about too much with the movement. "It's for when you are older. But it is my gift to you now, and I hope that you like it."

"It's amazing!" Fíli cried again and sat there admiring the weapon. "I'll make you proud with it, uncle."

"I'm sure you will," the adult agreed and reached into his pocket to pull out a small leather and metal bracelet.

"Wha's that?" Kíli asked, leaning forward. Thorin seemed to grow sad.

"It was found where we found your sister," he eventually said and Dís recognized the elvish style to the carvings and fastenings. "I think you should know where your little sister Kai came from." Dís looked on sadly for a little bit before she went back to prepare some tea. She had a feeling that they would all need a good dose of chamomile once this was over.

* * *

That night was a solemn affair. Thorin, Balin, and Dwalin had been called in to give information they knew about the killings of the elvish couple. No one had come around asking for them and no form of identification had been found on the bodies. No family crest, no jewelry that defined their origin. And no indication of what the name of their child had originally been. There had been some debate about allowing the dwarves to care for the baby elf, but once Thorin told them how close his family had already become to the infant, her situation had been resolved. Now it was time for burying the bodies before decay and the carrion got to them, as well as disposing of their steeds.

The outside world was in mourning. And the inside world wasn't much better.

Fíli was lying on his back in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He had counted to ten at least fifty times, though his small brain only comprehended that he had counted to ten more than ten times. But sleep still would not come. The scream of the night before that had scared the dwarfling half out of his wits had been the source of one of the happiest things in his life. And that made him sad. He turned his head on his pillow so he could look at the bed across the room from him. He could still hear sporadic sniffling from his brother's bed and that made him equally sad.

"Fíli?" he heard a tear slurred voice call and Fíli had to clear his throat a few times to answer.

"Yeah Kíli?"

"Can I sleep with you? I don't want to be alone."

"Of course!" Fíli answered in a tone that said his younger brother didn't even need to ask. Kíli slipped out of bed and padded over to his older brother's bed on soft feet. "Wha's wrong? You've been crying." Kíli didn't answer until he was under the covers, clinging to the warmth and safety of his brother.

"I feel sad for Kai. Imagine mommy...and Uncle Thorin..." He began softly crying again and Fíli held him close. "She didn't even know her mommy and daddy and uncle."

"It's okay Kíli. Because we'll be her family," Fíli protested. "Don't cry anymore." They were silent and soon fell asleep nestled up close to each other, dreaming of the adventures they would have with their little sister when she wasn't so little anymore. They were adventures with orcs, goblins, wargs, and giant battles. And they were always the ones who came out victorious because in what little boys' dreams do they lose?

In her cradle, Kai slept peacefully, grabbing at braids and smiling at grim faces, knowing that she was always going to be safe. No matter what.

It was late night when Thorin returned and he walked into the living room to collapse heavily in a chair, staring at the dancing flames in the fireplace. This was the life he led. And nothing would change that.

A soft crying drifted down the halls in the distinct pitch of a sleepless baby. He sighed in slight aggravation and pushed himself to his feet.

Not even a helpless little girl. Not even his niece Kai.

Half an hour later when she was still crying, making Dís get out of bed to try and get her to fall back asleep - and Kíli and Fíli stick their heads out of their door to complain that they couldn't sleep - he began to doubt his previous conviction.

But a single glance at her soulful brown eyes solidified his decision, eliminating all doubt. She was family, and no doubt about it.

**A/N: the rest of this story will be told in the time frame of the Hobbit but with flashbacks/campfire storytelling to continue childhood stories of the family. Please read and review, and a HUGE thank you to all of my reviewers, favs, and followers! Amazing response to the first chapter, made me feel so happy!**


	3. Chapter 3: Adulthood

The young woman crouched low in the undergrowth, drawing her bow back to full draw, finger resting lightly on the side of the arrow as she waited for her moment. The deer was grazing in the tall yellow reeds, nosing around the moss and eating the sweeter greens closer to the ground. The dark brown eyes narrowed slightly and she took in a deep breath, releasing her taut hold on the string. There was a satisfying thrum and an equally satisfying, meaty smack as the metal head impaled the animal and knocked it off its feet. After a few spasms of the dying beast, the forest fell back into silence and the noble creature fell still, cold and dead.

She smiled in triumph and walked straight to her target, slinging her bow across her shoulder and chest in a practiced movement. Her thick armor of multiple layers of ornate leather allowed her a graceful movement that still had some rough motions due to the natural restrictiveness of the material. Her boots were trimmed and decorated with fur and appeared to be lined with a waterproof material. She came to a stop before her kill and inspected it.

It was a buck with a full rack, very thick fur, and obviously a lot of meat on the body. It would please her uncle, she noted and began the process of hefting the animal almost twice her size onto her shoulders. That was when a slight crackling of brush drew her attention, and she let her prize fall down to the ground as she dropped into a crouch, pulling her hand crafted hunting knife from her belt. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled back from her face in an intricate pattern of interwoven, interlocked, and tiny braids that built up into a larger French-styled braid. Her hands were calloused and strong, and her whole body seemed fit and lithe. The only strange aspect was that she was a rather young elf, but was dressed entirely in the fashion of a dwarf.

Her eyes scanned the trees around her. It wasn't often that she worried about her surroundings: her family had drilled her to understand how to control fear, but this was something different. This was something familiar, and yet -

"Nice kill," a voice above her said, and she rolled her eyes, rising and re-sheathing her blade in one motion. She turned around and glared at her older brother sitting in the tree behind her, an apple in his hand. "What?" he asked defensively, taking a bite, and she bent down, picking up the deer and slinging it over her shoulder.

"You're stalking me again," she reprimanded and the dwarf shrugged, dropping down to the ground and walking beside her. "_I'm_ supposed to be the one stalking right now."

"You know me, I always have to check on my little sister," Fíli joked and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm not your _little_ sister, Fíli. I'm taller than you are."

"That's cause you're an elf," another voice commented and she turned around to get a clod of dirt between the eyes. Only one person would do that.

"You'll pay for that, Kíli," she grunted, wiping a hand across her forehead. "And I thought we'd agreed that I'm a - "

"Dwelf, yes...we know, Kai," Fíli said comfortingly playful and clapped a hand on his adopted sibling's shoulder. "We won't ever forget it, don't worry." Kíli dropped down from his perch on the top of the boulder and took his place on her other side.

"You want some help with that?" the archer asked but she shook her head.

"No thanks, Kíli. I think I got it," she returned and they cleared the line of the forest so that they were walking down the lane towards their home. Even from this distance they could hear Thorin's hammer in the forge and the girl took comfort in the noise. It reminded her of that night in the forest when her uncle Thorin had found her and taken her in. The beats of the hammer on metal were an almost thematic element in her mind for the displaced king and she smiled at the sound.

"Want some of my apple?" Fíli suddenly interjected and she jerked back at the suddenly procured fruit in her face.

"The way you two linger around me you'd think I was going to vanish at a second's notice!" Kai laughed but took a bite of her older brother's apple nonetheless. "Thanks."

"No problem," he responded and tossed the apple to his brother who also took a bite. "Thorin wanted to see me in the forge. I'll leave you and Kíli to take care of the deer while I go and talk with him."

"You just want to leave before things get messy!" the elf shouted after her retreating sibling and Fíli grinned, turning to face them so he was walking backwards.

"Of course. I mean, why would I stay around? To get covered in blood and guts?" he agreed and set off for the forge at a jog. Kíli shook his head and sighed, helping his sister lift the massive animal into the smokehouse behind their home.

"Fíli never did like to get his hands dirty with blood," he commented in a knowing manner as he and Kai set about preparing the animal for skinning, cutting, and smoking.

"And yet we spent our childhood racing about the countryside killing orcs like Uncle Thorin's stories," she laughed and skillfully began preparing the carcass. "We were fickle young children."

"You weren't even a child when we started playing with you," Kíli corrected thoughtfully and Kai looked at him sharply.

"What?" she asked in surprise. Her sibling cleared his throat and focused on his work. "So how old was I?" Kíli muttered something along the lines of eighteen months and Kai reached out to swat at his head. "I'm shocked I'm still alive and breathing," she muttered and her brother playfully shoved her with his shoulder as they passed each other.

"Honestly though, so am I," he had to admit and the elf and dwarf laughed companionably while Dís watched from the window. She had to agree with her youngest son's confession. She too was surprised their little Kai had made it to adolescence and young womanhood, let alone childhood. Especially after that one incident at the river...

* * *

_"I don't think we should do this, Kíli," Fíli protested and his younger brother scoffed._

_"Come on, I know what I'm doing!"_

_"No. No, you don't," the older sibling said after a moment of reflection. "We shouldn't be taking Kai outside! She can't even walk on her own yet!"_

_"It's not like we're going to be climbing trees with her, relax Fíli!" the eight year old protested and his ten year old counterpart sighed in resignation._

_"Fine. But we get in trouble, _you're_ explaining to mom what happened," Fíli ordered and Kíli shrugged.  
_

_"Sure."_

_"You agreed to that fast," the elder child responded, looking at his companion suspiciously._

_"Yeah. 'Cause NOTHIN'S gonna happen!" Kíli cried and picked up the baby girl in his arms, sneaking out the door, reluctantly followed by his older brother. "We're just showing her where she's gonna play with us when she gets older!" Fíli rolled his eyes and followed his brother out into the woods, the two hurrying down their own self-made paths to the river side. They came out into a clean clearing with lots of flowers, boulders, grass, and well-branched trees perfect for climbing. It was almost as though it came right out of the pages of a story book._

_It was any little boy's dream sanctuary. And these little boys had just shared it with their sister._

_"Look at it, Kai!" Kíli said proudly, setting the girl down on the soft ground. "This is our special place. I guess maybe you like nature since you're an elf. So I thought I'd bring you here." She sat there, eyes wide with wonder and reflecting the excited joy she felt. She laughed and clapped her hands as she stared about her surroundings. This was a wondrous world to her little mind; she giggled again and forced herself to her feet, bending forward in that hyper flexible way of little infants and pushing herself to her feet by grabbing fistfuls of grass._

_"Careful Kai," Fíli warned and gently gave her both of his hands to stabilize herself as Kíli ran off to go and splash about in the river. She looked up at her brother and gave a big, toothless baby smile and the blonde boy smiled back at her. "Do you wanna walk, Kai?" he asked and began backing away from her, still allowing her to maintain a hold on him. At first she looked as though she was going to start crying at the leaving of her brother but soon she rocked forward and began unsteadily placing her feet ahead of each other on the soft grass in her determination to keep up with her Fíli._

_"Kíli! Kíli, look! Kai's walking!" Fíli called in eagerness and Kíli came running out of the water to look down at his little sister, a proud smile on his face._

_"She walks funny," he commented and his older brother rolled his eyes, still walking backwards and guiding his little sister. His little bundle of joy in life, he reflected._

* * *

_At the house, Dís was out of her mind with worry, searching all over the house for Kíli, Fíli, and Kai. If they had taken her outside there was going to be hell to pay, she vowed and stormed outside, searching the ground for her children's footprints. Thankfully they weren't hard to find or follow._

_"Is everything alright, ma'am?" a kind, soft voice asked and she looked around to see a familiar face before her._

_"Ori, thank goodness. I need you to follow these footprints while I go and check for Kai with Dwalin and Balin." With a few more hurried instructions, the young dwarf found himself following a few intermittent marks in the ground with his slingshot in his hand. Not that he was planning to use it on the kids, he told himself. One just never knew what he would find in the wilderness here._

* * *

_"Easy Kai. Why don't we sit down?" Fíli offered and pulled the little girl into his lap where she contentedly sat, eyes half open in the hazy sunlight._

_"Come in the water, Fíli!" Kíli called from the river and his older brother looked at him wistfully._

_"I wish I could but I can't. I have to watch Kai."_

_"Just put her in that bush. She'll be safe," Kíli offered, and his sibling looked at the thick, lush plant beside him. Experimentally he leaned against it and found that it was soft but had enough firmness to its branches to provide a perfect little cradle for Kai. Pushing aside the warning clench in his gut that accompanied his action, the blonde boy carefully placed his sister in the shrubbery and ran off to join Kíli in the water. In the plant, Kai watched, something more mature in her adoring gaze than was normal. Then, unbeknownst to the two boys splashing water at each other, Kai rocked forward and tried to begin crawling forward only to fall face first into the soft ground. As she lay there, she noticed the bushes where she was sitting were starting to move as though something were approaching. And, being an inquisitive child, she started moving towards it._

* * *

_Ori was running as fast as he could down the trail by this point and could hear Dís' sons laughing and talking in the distance. He could only hope they weren't doing anything brash or stupid, because they were certain to get an earful from their mother when this was all over. And he shuddered to even think about what was going to happen when Thorin found out. However, his worst fears were initially assuaged when he burst through the last barrier of bushes to see a beautiful little haven. Kíli and Fíli were splashing in the river - though their mother would have conniptions about that - but there was nothing..._

_"OI!" Ori shouted and aimed his slingshot, releasing the tautly pulled elastic string to launch a pebble at the head of the fox* nosing the baby elf laying unsupervised on the ground. The animal yelped in shocked pain and sprinted for the bushes, the dwarf quickly scooping Kai off the floor. "Hey there, Kai. You okay?" Kíli and Fíli had stopped playing to stare at the scene before them in massive guilt._

_"What are you two thinking?" he gently admonished. "Get out of the river before your mum comes back - " The bushes rustled again with the approach of something moving very quickly and possibly very angrily. The two boys quickly scampered out of the water and stared at their feet guiltily as their mother arrived on scene._

_"FÍLI, KÍLI, WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING OUT HERE?! AND WITH YOUR SISTER?! KAI IS A BABY, HOW IRRESPONSIBLE CAN YOU TWO GET?!" She turned to Ori and the innocent dwarf quickly passed the smiling and cooing baby off to her. "Why does she smell like fox?" Ori blanched and stumbled about his words, trying to formulate an excuse._

_"Well, uh, maybe there was a fox around in the clearing before hand and she just laid down in the same place and...uh..."_

_"Ori," she said warningly and the young dwarf held his hands before himself in defense._

_"Fine! Sorry," he added over his shoulder. "There was a fox nosing her around when I - "_

_"WHAT?! YOU TWO ARE GROUNDED, YOU HEAR ME?!"_

* * *

"You almost let me get eaten by a fox?" Kai asked in disbelief and Kíli shrugged in response. "You two were terrible as children!" she declared and he nodded emphatically, able to agree on that point.

"Oh that's for sure. But then again, that isn't something restricted to childhood..." he mused and she smiled as she continued to prepare the meat.

"Oh no, we're all still accident prone trouble makers," she agreed. "Thank goodness though that Ori showed up, otherwise things could have turned out a lot differently."

"I can agree full heartedly with that," Kíli consented and she thought for a moment.

"Why in the name of Durin did you tell me that story?!"

"What?" Kíli asked defensively. She sighed and shook her head.

"Now I can't make fun of Ori for using a slingshot as his weapon of choice." And the two of them broke down into laughter once more.

"I miss something funny?" a familiar voice asked and both turned around to see Fíli approaching them, rolling up his sleeves to help with the work.

"Oh, I was just telling her the story of the fox," Kíli explained and Kai nodded.

"Yep," she confirmed. "You two were reckless. If I were your older sister, I can guarantee to you that I would have taken better care of you two." The three of them proceeded with their task in silence, one that was broken by the eldest of the group.

"No you wouldn't have."

"You're right." And the laughter returned. "Well, what did Uncle Thorin have to say?" Fíli looked at his two younger siblings and saw the curiosity burning behind their eyes. He shrugged evasively and Kíli rolled his eyes.

"Come on. It's not like telling us is the end of the world," he protested, but Fíli refused to say anything.

"He'll tell us tonight. Don't worry about it." But there was decidedly something distant about the oldest brother as they finished.

* * *

The day slowly ended and the three siblings were gathered before the fireplace, staring into the dancing flames, the glowing embers. There was a tranquilizing effect of a live hearth, Kai thought to herself. She looked over at Fíli and noted the way his gold hair shone and reflected the light. It danced deep in his blue eyes as he pondered something unknown to the world. He looked so philosophically contemplative that she didn't want to disturb him and instead leaned over to lie against Kíli. He looked down at her, dozing gaze broken by the contact.

"What is it?" he asked her, turning his body so he could lean up against the chair beside them and wrap his arms around her. She smiled and heaved a contented sigh.

"Just enjoying the moment," she answered, looking at Fíli, who was still engrossed in the flames. "He looks so regal and studious, doesn't he?" Kíli laughed at the idea and held her hands against her stomach.

"Are you kidding? Fíli ISN'T regal. Studious maybe, but not regal." At the mention of his name, Fíli looked around at his brother and sister nestled together by the fireside.

"What?" he asked, defensively and Kíli began laughing, Kai joining in and resting her head against his shoulder.

"Nothing, Fee. Just keep being you, okay?" Kai said and Kíli snorted.

"Of course. There's no way he would change," he assured her and Kai looked at her brother.

"Come join us," she offered, tapping the stone floor beside her and her eldest brother sighed, moving over by his two younger siblings and sat back hard on them, a grin of mischievousness in his eyes.

"OW! FÍLI!" he shouted and Kai began laughing, pushing her blonde brother into a more comfortable position for herself. "What was that for?"

"You're my brother, do I need any other reason? OW, KAI!" he shouted in turn as his little sister yanked on his braid. As he rubbed his head, he threw her a rueful look. "I thought you grew out of that when you were a toddler..."

"Oh, never," she promised and sat back comfortably. A companionable silence stretched out to be broken by Kíli's slightly muffled voice.

"Ok, I've got a chair arm digging into my back, so can you two get off?" Kai looked over at Fíli, and both continued to sit there until their brother, with a muffled dwarvish swear shoved his both off of him with a surprisingly forceful push that sent everyone off balance.

"Don't play by the fire," Dís' voice came as she stepped into view from the kitchen. "I don't want your Uncle to come home and see the three of you bandaged up because you were idiots-in-arms."

"We know, mom," Kai said and softly got to her feet and retreated briefly to her room to return with her well-crafted hand made flute. It was a sad melancholic sound by nature but there was something inspiring about it. She settled back down before the fire and began playing, her brothers watching her, humming along in a beautiful mix of harmony and melody.

When Thorin walked into the house, tired from a long day in the forge, he immediately began relaxing to the sound of his niece playing her flute he had made her. It had been his gift to her, like the blade he had made Fíli, and the bow he had fashioned for Kíli. She had always been enraptured by music, a stubborn streak of her elvish nature, and after trying to guide her out of it, he had ended up tolerating it.

But it was an aspect that he appreciated, for it was dwarvish songs she played.

"Fíli, Kíli, Kai," he said after watching them for a while. Kíli looked up from where he had been re-braiding Kai's hair and Fíli opened his eyes from his reclined position against the same chair they had been piled against just minutes before.

"Uncle," Kai said, stopping her music. "Is there something you wished to speak to us about?" Thorin hesitated. He had been ready to tell them after dinner, but the curious gazes of his two youngest relatives and the steady look of Fíli, he nodded, gesturing for Dís to come with him.

They all got settled around the fire. Thorin was sitting in the chair closest to the flames, Dís in the other chair across from him. Fíli was kneeling by his side, Kai was sitting by her mother's side, head resting on the dwarf woman's knee in a habit from early childhood. Kíli was sitting between the two groups on a low stool, waiting expectantly.

"I know that this will sound foolish to you, an old man's dream..." Thorin began, but there was a kindle of fire in his eyes. "But I am ready to take back Erebor. Those tales you grew up with, of a dwarvish city rightfully ours taken away...well, the prophecies, the signs, they are all coming true. The time has come for the dwarves to reclaim their home from Smaug. And I am calling solely upon those I see fit to join me to help me in this task. Dwalin and Balin have responded that they will come, and I have summoned Ori, Nori, and Dori from their home in the neighboring village. Bifur and Bofur are fortunately visiting Bombur, so the three of them shall travel here to join us. I have sent word to Oin and Gloin, and they are traveling from their home as well. I now ask you three, not just Kíli and Fíli, but you as well, Kai, to join me in retaking our home, in reclaiming what is rightfully ours."

Kai frowned.

"But...I am an elf. I shouldn't have a part in something so close to dwarvish history," she said softly. She wasn't enforcing the stereotype, the feud between the two people. She was simply acting upon the only way of life that she knew. Thorin sighed and closed his eyes. When he opened them, the expression was tender and warm hearted.

"Kai," he said gently. "Come here." She slowly got to her feet and took a single step to clear the distance between them before dropping down into a kneel. "Kai," he told her kindly, putting both hands on her shoulders and bowing his head so that his forehead was resting on the top of her head. "I took you in as a member of the line of Durin. That makes Erebor your kingdom as much as it is ours. And I would be most honored if you would come with me, join with us on this quest. You are a line of Durin, Kai. Never doubt that because of your blood, because of your people. You are one of us." Kai nodded and blinked back the tears misting her eyes. She looked up at her uncle's serious, caring face and smiled slightly.

"Thirteen dwarves against a dragon," she said, taking a deep breath. "You may want a Dwelf on your side as well."

Thorin nodded approvingly and told them the rest of the information he had.

* * *

That night, Dís was staring out the window a sad, foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"You are worried, mother," a soft voice said and she turned around to see Fíli standing in the doorway. "Don't worry, Kai and Kíli are asleep." She sighed and smiled, gesturing for her son to come over to her. When he was by her side, she enveloped him in a hug and looked out the window, rocking slightly. "What is it?"

"Your uncle is taking my whole family off to a world where I won't be able to protect you," she said sadly. "And I can't help but feel that nothing good will come of this quest." Fíli wisely didn't respond but instead held his mother a little tighter before she pulled away to hold him at arms length. "Promise me that you'll take care of them, Fíli. Kíli is so reckless and brave but he doesn't realize that he's vulnerable. And Kai...well she's a naive child. She's never been out in the world before, and I want this to be her first time out of many more. Don't even get me started on your uncle, though," she said with bitter sarcasm and Fíli nodded.

"I understand mother."

"Take care of them, you promise?" she ordered, eyes begging him. Fíli swallowed and nodded.

"With my life or death, I will protect them," he promised and Dís nodded, holding her son close to her again.

"And take care of yourself, too."

"I will. I promise."

*_** I don't know if they have foxes in Middle Earth, but I figured if they have rabbits, hedgehogs, and stick bugs and other little common forest critters they should have foxes. If not, it's just part of my AU.**_


	4. Chapter 4: Departure

Kai woke up in the morning to Dís' soft footfalls approaching her bedside. Knowing how her mother enjoyed the sensation of softly shaking her awake, the elven child kept her eyes closed until the dwarf's gentle hand closed on her shoulder.

"Kai, little one? Thorin is starting to wake. He wants to get an early start." The sleeper smiled and sat up, hand immediately going to her rest-rumpled hair to try and detangle it. "Here, let me do that. I'll go get your brush." The Dwelf rolled her eyes as her mother got up and retrieved her daughter's horse-hair brush from her night stand. "Now, just turn around on your bed and...thank you, Kai." The two of them sat there, the girl rocking ever so slightly as her mother dragged the brush through her tangled hair. "Great Mahal, what do you do to yourself when you sleep? It's like a rat's nest up here!"

"As it always is every morning mother," Kai answered playfully. It was a fair statement: Dís said that every time she decided to brush her hair. It was a sort of ritual between the pair of them. However, this time the statement seemed more meant, more heartfelt than before. As though there was a lot more of an emotional attachment to it this time.

And the younger girl knew why.

Dís closed her eyes and took a deep breath to force back her tears as her daughter leaned into her embrace and rested her fair head on her shoulder.

"You're so young, Kai," she said softly. "You don't realize it because you are bigger than us. But you are so young...and so naive. I just want you to be careful." Kai sighed and shook her head in mild exasperation.

"Mother...you've always been concerned about me from the moment Fíli and Kíli could drag me around with them on their adventures. I've lived with _them_ for so long that I think I'll be able to handle myself out there."

"Kai, the outside world isn't _like_ the adventures that you and your brothers had as children, not even that stray Warg that hunted you in the woods that one time. You are going into a world full of orcs, goblins, trolls, and _dragons_. Promise me that you will remain on your guard at all times?" she asked, firmly gripping the elf's hands. Kai bowed her head in consent.

"I understand, ma," she whispered and Dís nodded, looking up from their joined hands and over their shoulders to the door.

"Your uncle is awake," the dwarf said and stood up, walking to the door and leaving after gently squeezing her girl's shoulder. Kai stared at the smooth stone floor before her and pushed herself up out of bed and walking to her closet, pulled out her "uniform" as she called it. Her uncle and her brothers all had similar outfits: thick, dark pants; heavy boots; and simple tunics of dull colors overlaid by heavier, ornate leather overcoats. Broad belts fastened about their stomachs provided locations for their knives and other smaller weapons.

Hers was exactly the same, save with a few alterations. Her tunic was a dim, dark forest green and fell to roughly her knees while her siblings fell to just below their waists and were grey and glue. Her leather overcoat was more fitted to her slimmer, taller build and had simpler, yet no less ornate, engravings in the fabric. Her boots were lighter and lined with deer fur that came from about the animal's neck. She didn't bother brushing through her hair. It would only get messed up again with what she did next.

A sense of child-like playfulness crept back into her as she leaned out of her bedroom, eyes taking on an impish gleam as her tousled head tilted to the side as she listened for any noise in the room across from her. There was none and a smirk began to cross her lips. As she stepped lightly to the door, hand reaching out to the handle, another voice interrupted her efforts.

"We don't have time for that today." Her eyes grew disappointed and she looked over at Thorin standing by the hallway entrance. However, he soon sighed at her pleading expression and waved her on. She smiled and the door opened and closed with barely a sound. Dís came up beside her brother and shook her head, smiling as they both watched the door.

"They're going to be doing that to each other for a long while, you know. They won't be growing out of this any time soon," she commented and at the loud crash and startled, laughing voices she rolled her eyes and rested her head on her sibling's shoulder, Thorin giving her a slightly disconcerted glance. "Sounds like us when we were dwarflings."

"Exactly. When we were _dwarflings_," Thorin said pointedly and turned to walk into the living room to wait for his niece and nephews.

* * *

Fíli had been sleeping blissfully, gathering his strength for the upcoming voyage. His dreams were clouded and strange, far off lands and mysterious creatures. There was a strange sort of excitement to it but -

"No sleep for the wicked!" a sing-songy voice said in the distant world of the "living," and something heavy crashed down on his body, pinning him to the bed and making his reflexive attempt to sit up a miserable fail of a convulsion. His first sensation of the real, waking world was that of long hair dangling in his face and a vague scent of flowers and a painful sensation where bony elbows had landed on his chest.

"Kai..." he grumbled, to push her off. "Just a few more minutes..." She laughed at him and sat up, stealing his pillow out from under his head with practiced dexterity as he tried to roll over and burrow deeper in his blankets. Her older brother groaned as his head hit the firmer mattress. "Kai!" But his protest wasn't angry, no matter how hard he tried to make it so. He was smiling at her with a half-asleep air to his expression. He sat up and ran a hand through his tangled hair, blinking several times to try and rid himself of the last webs of sleep when his pillow swung around to hit him in the face. He started and sat there as his brain tried to slowly process everything.

Kai smiled at her brother and stood up, walking over to her other sibling's bed and examined him with a caring eye momentarily. He was in deep sleep, breathing softly, hid dark hair splayed all about his bedding and face in a tangled web. She couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret at her upcoming course of action: he looked so peaceful and sweet...

But then she shrugged and swung the pillow down on Kíli's head.

"OW! WHAT IN MORDOR?!" he blearily shouted and sat up, disoriented. Fíli wisely got to his feet and slipped out of the room just as Kai fell over backwards, a rather irritated dwarf swinging his pillow down on her in retaliation. The door clicked shut, and the blonde boy walked into the living room. His mother was standing expectantly by the hallway and Thorin was waiting rather impatiently and anxiously by the freshly started fire in the hearth.

"Thank goodness you've grown out of that," the adult said gruffly and Fíli hesitated. Then, giving a tight smile that had an air of rebellion, the young heir walked back down the hall to Kai's room and returned to the living room with his sister's pillow and held it up so Thorin could clearly see. Slinging the pillow over his right shoulder and gripping it tighter with his right hand, he re-enterred the room. Thorin sighed and Dís laughed softly to herself. "Or not..."

"You can't expect them to grow up so quickly, Thorin. They'll always be children at heart," she chided and both flinched slightly as there was a loud thudding crack and Kai shouted:

"FÍLI! YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT!" Then, she - and Kíli judging by the loud, resounding bang - tackled their brother to the ground and everything slowly fell quiet in the bedroom. Thorin shook his head and began heading for the door.

"I wouldn't do that, brother. You're willingly entering a war zone," she warned but Thorin shook his head. He opened the door to get a pillow in the face and as he stood there, eyes closed and slightly stunned, he realized his sister had been right.

"Sorry, uncle?" came Kai's weak voice from the other side of the room, and he heard Kíli snicker at her unfortunate throw.

"Fíli was over there," he whispered so Thorin could hear and Fíli lashed out at him to catch him up the side of his head with his leather cuff. "Ow..."

"Shut up," he growled and immediately stood up, straightening out the beds with Kai. "We'll be right out uncle. I apologize for our delay." But Thorin simply shook his head and closed the door. He realized that it would be a long time before they would be able to do this again: he may as well give them their time.

* * *

When the three siblings came out of the room, shoving each other playfully, they all were disheveled, hair sticking in every possible direction, stomachs hurting slightly from how hard they had been laughing. Fíli as always was a little ahead of his two younger siblings, Kíli and Kai linking arms and pushing each other slightly as they talked in low tones. As the trio entered the living room, they became became aware of a soft voice singing from the direction of the fire. It was Thorin. Kai slipped each of her hands into her brothers' and walked into the room to see their uncle gazing broodingly into the dancing flames, subconsciously singing to himself.

"Uncle? We are sorry we did not come faster," Kai said hesitantly and Thorin distractedly looked around at them. But he shook his head and smiled slightly to himself.

"Don't be sorry. It will be a long time until you have a bedroom to horse around in with each other, and longer yet until we're all under this roof again. I was wrong to rush you." A sensation of sadness burned in the dwarf's gut as he said those words. He realized that he was asking his niece and nephews, mere children whom he regarded as his own sons and daughter, to grow up rather quickly. The small morning ritual he had just been witness to, would end, far before it should, he added to himself. And then the thought hit him that made him feel slightly sick. He was taking away a part of their "prolonged childhood" as Dís called it by taking them away on a quest that held no consequence for them. They had grown up traveling, never knowing the splendor or glory of Erebor. It was nothing more than a children's story by the fire at night. This quest wasn't meaningful enough for his young relatives to just drag them away on it.

"I must ask you," Thorin began, turning his seated frame so he could look at them better. "Are you certain you want to come with me to Erebor? It is not because I doubt your sincerity, your talent, or your loyalty. It is because Erebor is not your fight. You can stay here, and I will not hold it against you." His two nephews immediately reacted.

"Thorin, of course we will come!" Fíli assured him and stepped forward to kneel by his uncle's side, hand resting on his uncle's in a sign of fealty. Kíli wasn't far behind him, assuring his uncle that he, too, would come.

"It matters not to me if Erebor wasn't my home before," the younger brother said firmly. "I will fight by you, uncle, for everything it is worth." Thorin nodded to them and looked over their heads to Kai. And felt a twinge of sympathy.

She was lost. Her dwarvish upbringing immediately mandated that she go with her family, be loyal, and go along for the adventure. And in her heart of hearts, she wanted nothing more than to come. But her uncle's words about Erebor not being her fight were true. She was, fundamentally, an elf. Erebor was not part of her heritage, and wasn't something that she should have to potentially give her life for. She had no stock in the success of the mission. For no matter how often Thorin or the others told her she was a member of the line of Durin, she would always be the outcast: the elf among dwarves.

"Kai?" Thorin asked, standing and moving to stand before her. It was almost a comical sight: the five foot tall dwarf who stood with an air of authority and the five foot seven inch elf who bowed her head in deference. But it was the truth of their relation: it was measure not by feet and inches, but by respect and who deserved that respect. "Kai, you do not need to come. This is not your fight in and of itself." At those words though, Kai's troubled gaze cleared and she raised her head to look at her uncle, determined.

"Whatever fight you ride into, Thorin Oakenshield, I shall follow. Whatever home that is yours is mine. And whatever obligation you hold to my brothers - your heirs - applies to me. I shall come, not for Erebor, but for you. For my brothers. So that the dwarves may have a home again, though it may be a world where I don't fit." Thorin nodded and she bowed her head in response.

"Eat some breakfast. I'm going to bring the ponies."

"Horse for me uncle, remember?" Kai teased as she followed her brothers into the kitchen, and Thorin rolled his eyes. The door opened and a blast of cold air from the snowy outdoors rushed inside, making them all shiver momentarily.

"Thorin!" Dís scolded. "Stop staring at the snow and go outside! I don't want my house to be cold before you all leave!" There was a slam. "Thank you," their mother sighed and laid out the assortment of meats and dried fruits on the table before her children. "Remember that time he accidentally brought a pony for you, Kai?" Fíli snorted and coughed on the tea his mother had put into his hands. "Hey, don't laugh at your uncle about that. He felt so bad..." Kai smiled to herself and nodded.

"I would have done the same in his position. He was away at the Iron Hills that summer, yes? He hadn't seen me in a while and I hit my growth spurt."

"You're still short for an elf," Kíli teased and Kai nodded.

"And I want to stay that way," she answered firmly. "I don't want to be too much taller than you two, but I do want to be taller." They fell into silence as they began eating, each of their minds turned anxiously to the quest before them. Their mother simply watched them as they ate, trying to ignore the morbid thoughts in her mind that this might be the last time she saw them. A shaky hand snuck up to her eye to wipe away a tear, but they didn't notice.

They didn't even look up when Thorin came in and pulled Dís aside, a worried expression on his face.

* * *

"We'll be back before you know it, mother," Fíli promised her as she embraced him and then Kíli. "And I promise we'll look after Kai."

"As though I'll be the one needing looking after!" Kai snorted from Poppy's side as she saddled up the animal and ran her hands through the white mare's smooth, ivory mane. "We'll be the ones looking after Kíli and Fíli, now won't we, Poppy?" she asked the horse, gently fondling her friend's soft ears. Thorin shook his head, almost irritated, and his shaggy pony shook her head in the same way.

"Come on you lot," he said gruffly and mounted his pony, turning the animal's head to face east.

"Goodbye, mother," Kíli said kindly and leaned over in his saddle to gently kiss his mother's forehead. "Don't you worry so much. Fíli was right, we'll be back faster than you can _say_ Erebor." She smiled up at them and stepped back to the porch of their house, giving a half-haerted wave to their retreating backs in the falling snow.

_You'll see them again, don't worry so Dís. Don't worry so,_ she told herself, sighing contentedly as she convinced herself of that fact. _They'll be back in time for the winter solstice. Your little babies will be home._ ___I'll wait, I'll hope, I'll pray until they're back with me again._

* * *

"I want us to be halfway to our rendezvous by night fall. Gandalf said it was of the utmost importance that we travel as quickly as possible," Thorin said after a few minutes of silent riding that led them into the forest.

"Gandalf? As in Gandalf the Grey?" Fíli asked, urging his pony over to his uncle. Thorin looked around at him, a frown on his face.

"We can't talk about that at the moment, Fíli. We'll speak later about it," he chastised and gestured for Kíli and Kai to ride up closer to them. "Don't linger so far back. I want to be able to hear you at all times."

"Expecting trouble?" Kai asked, Poppy taking quicker steps and catching up with Fíli and Thorin. The dwarf cast a wary eye about.

"You can never know. The wild is a dangerous place, and there are those who would go against us in our voyage, mean us harm. They could have eyes and ears everywhere," he said finally and his companions nodded. "Could have wished for better traveling weather though," he muttered and Kai shrugged.

"I rather like the snow," she returned and Fíli smirked.

"I think it shows off your pale elvish skin very nicely," he said, voice overly sugary. Kai twisted around in her saddle and glared. "Oh, sorry. It shows off your _dwelvish_ skin very nicely." Kai smiled tightly at him and nodded once.

"Thank you, Fíli. The snow on your skin makes it look as though a flock of sparrows decided to use you as a...relief stop."

"Oh!" Kíli laughed, pointing at his brother, and Fíli smiled in chagrin.

"Got me there."

"Will the three of you be like this the whole trip?!" Thorin asked exasperatedly and they looked at him with wide innocent eyes.

"Of course, Uncle. You did not expect us to come along, all three of us, and not poke fun?" Kai asked and the dark headed dwarf sighed and shook his head, turning back around to face the forest trail. "You know, uncle..." she began, innocently. "The snow matches those white streaks in your hair rather perfectly. It gives you an...elderly look." Thorin spun back around in his seat.

"_Are you saying I look old_?" he asked, very affronted and annoyed.

"Being old is hardly an insult, Thorin," Fíli rejoined, trying to placate the adult. It was a long voyage yet and he didn't want it to be awkward and strained between them all at this point. "It means you are wise and have seen a lot in your life. You have strong morals and great knowledge." Thorin wasn't looking as bothered anymore and the blonde headed dwarf sighed in relief as his uncle began turning back around.

And both he and Kai winced as his younger brother's voice chipped in.

"It _also_ means that you have a poorer memory, weaker body and - "

"KÍLI!" Thorin shouted, twisting back around to glare at them. Kai ducked down behind Poppy's head, and Fíli idly looked up and asked if a distant speck was a red-tailed hawk while Kíli found something of immense interest on the fabric of his saddle pad.

It was going to be a long trip.

* * *

"We'll stop here for tonight," Thorin said as the sun began sinking behind the mountains, casting everything in deep shadow. They had pulled off the trail into a small culvert surrounded by piled boulders on one side and a fallen tree on the other. "Kíli, take care of the ponies. Fíli, go find some firewood. Kai, set up camp. I'm going to go and check ahead for a moment." The three nodded to him and the adult turned his pony about and set off at a slow trot.

"Kíli, did you really have to make that jibe about him being old? He's not _old!_ _Balin _is old," Fíli said firmly, and his brother shrugged. "How could you say that to him?"

"What? It's not like it's the most insulting thing we've said to him."

"Yeah it is!" Fíli protested.

"Seriously? Have you forgotten the time you asked him if you could learn elvish?"

"Great Aulë, DON'T bring that up!" Fíli snapped, pointing angrily at his younger brother. "I thought he was going to kill me!"

"_I _thought he was going to kill you. In fact I was so convinced you were going to die I ran and hid in my room, crying for hours on end. Even when Dís had beat some sense into Thorin and found you I still wouldn't come out because I thought she meant your _dead body_ was in your room," Kíli said, and shook his head in disbelief. "Thank Middle Earth that you could climb trees so quickly. I _seriously_ thought you were dead!"

"Why do I miss out on these things?" Kai asked, disappointed. "I was still in my cradle when this happened!"

"Didn't stop you from wailing like a banshee while Thorin was chasing him around," Kíli commented, and Fíli shook his head, marveling at what he lived through, not to mention what he got away with without Thorin beating his head in. "Well, Fíli, why don't you go find that firewood. We should get the campsite set up for Thorin as an apology." His older brother nodded and moved off into the shadows, digging around in the bushes and undergrowth for fallen or dead branches.

Kai stifled a yawn and swung down off Poppy and loosened the mare's girth, muttering a few words to her in dwarvish.

"How are you doing, Poppy?" she whispered, lifting the heavy saddle off her friend's back and settling it down over the fallen tree log. "Come over here, girl. You too Daisy, Mindy...Come here girls." The three horses came trotting over and the dwelf removed their saddles, draping them over the log. "Kíli, do you think this will do? We can set up our bed rolls against the log here and set up the fire there."

Kíli looked around as she spoke and stopped what he was doing to stare at her as she sat on the top of the fallen tree, sitting in a small cavity. The snow drifting through the air gave him an uncomfortable sense of fear and sadness. In his mind's eye, he could see his sister as a tiny baby, wrapped up in that soft elvish blanket, tucked away in a culvert similar to the one she sat in at the moment. He could see the snow about their feet stained red.

"What?" asked Kai, laughing in slight discomfort. Her brother frowned at her in response.

"What?"

"You're staring," she said, looking down at her lap. "Something wrong?" Kíli shook his head and stepped over to where the horses were gathered.

"No, that'll work great. Good - good layout," he said distractedly. Kai frowned slightly and got to her feet, walking over to stand next to her brother and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"What's eating at you, Kai?" he asked, looking up at her. Her elvish features grew serious, and she was about to answer when a loud shrieking broke through the chilled air. There was a loud rustling in the undergrowth and Kíli immediately dragged one of his knives free, holding it in classic knife fighter's stance and turning to face the undergrowth.

"Who's there?" he asked, voice dangerously low, but his fears were assuaged when Fíli was the one who emerged, dropping his gathered wood to pull his sword free. Kíli nodded to him and knocked an arrow to his bow.

"What was that?" Kai asked, stepping over to them and knocking her own bow. Kíli and Fíli looked around at Kai and hesitated.

"Orcs," Fíli finally said. "Kíli, I want you to go around on the trail. See if there is something there."

"Wouldn't I be a better choice for that?" Both of her brothers looked up at her. "I mean, honestly, we all know that I'm quieter on my feet and if it's orcs - "

"No!" Kíli hissed and Fíli shook his head violently.

"What? It's wiser," she answered forcefully. But her brothers continued to shake their heads.

"Kai, they're _orcs._"

"So? I've had fighting experience!"

"Kai, just..._no,_" Fíli said with equal force. "Listen, if you knew what we knew about you and orcs - "

"What? What do you know about me that I don't?!" Kai asked angrily.

"Keep your voices down," a new voice said angrily, and the three looked up to see Thorin walking over soundlessly, leading his pony in the dark. "There are no orcs nearby. Their voices were carried on the wind, nothing more." Fíli and Kíli visibly relaxed and walked over to the discarded wood, setting up a fire, while Thorin walked over to the other horses, tethering his pony to the others. "Orcs. There are ocrs around and you three are arguing loud enough so that people on the other side of the hills can hear you!"

"She wanted to go out as scout," Fíli said, looking down at the wood he was stacking. Thorin shrugged.

"Then why didn't you let her? She's lighter and quieter on her feet than the two of you." Kíli looked at him in surprise and answered without missing a beat.

"Because _Kai_ wanted to go looking for _orcs,_" he said as though it was obvious what was wrong with that. Thorin sighed and turned around just as Fíli managed to get the fire going. In the dancing light he saw Kai sitting down against the log, staring at the flames, a troubled expression on her face.

* * *

"What aren't you telling me?" she asked finally, looking up from her hands. They had eaten in silence and sat there in the dying light in the same manner. All the while there had been a heavy weight settling down on them, a figurative oliphant in the room. Thorin looked over at her and at his two nephews, both of which avoided his gaze.

"Kai," he finally said, leaning forward to poke at the fire with his sword. "There is something that we need to tell you. We told you when you were small that we had found you in the woods, abandoned. Tucked away in a fallen log." Kai shot a quick glance over at Kíli, remembering the odd way he had looked at her when she had been sitting on the tree she was currently leaning up against. Now it made sense.

"I remember. I felt betrayed by my family." Thorin shook his head sadly and reached out to grab her hand.

"Kai, that was only a half-truth. You hadn't been abandoned. Your parents had been traveling at night and were hit by an orc raid. Your father had been killed first and your mother shortly afterwards. She barely had time to tuck you away in one of the cavities in a nearby log before they shot her down as well." Kai looked down at her hands once more, numb. "We were inside the house when we heard the screams. Balin, Dwalin, and I went to go investigate. There...there was blood everywhere, the horses were completely butchered...the snow was red, just...solid red. We went over and found your parents and I - I almost left their bodies there because they were elves, but then..."

"You found me," Kai whispered. "You found me in the log and you took me in?"

"Not...not initially. I - Kai, you can't take it personally when I tell you that I wanted to leave you there. It wasn't - I didn't mean anything by it. My bias was too strong, so Balin had to force me to take you in." There was something glistening in Kai's eyes that couldn't be attributed to the lucidity of elven eyes, and Kíli reached out, holding her hand in his.

"You didn't want me?" she asked hollowly, looking up at the half-shadowed face of her uncle.

"It wasn't like that," Thorin assured her, but she stood up sharply and gathered her bow and knives, climbing skillfully up the pile of boulders. "Kai?"

"I'll take first watch," she said, voice trembling. "I'll relieve Fíli next; then he can relieve you, uncle; and then you can relieve Kíli."

"Kai! Kai!" Kíli called and started to his feet, but Thorin's hand fastened on his forearm.

"Let her be, lad. Let her be," he advised. Kíli reluctantly sat back down and Fíli dropped his head into his hands in despair.

"That did not go well," the oldest brother said, voice muffled by his hands, and Thorin sighed and then had to agree.

"No. It didn't."

* * *

In the morning, Kai rotated her neck, wincing as it popped in a few places. She had taken the whole night shift, not bothering to wake the others for their shifts: she had had too much on her mind to sleep anyways. But it hadn't been entirely a waste of precious energy she reflected.

They had had a night visitor prowling around in the dark. Unfortunately, - she thought to herself as she examined her knife - he never saw his fate coming. Picking up her prize, Kai stepped through the fresh layer of snow to kick Fíli and Kíli just hard enough in the ribs to wake them up, but not cause them pain.

Blinking blearily, the boys woke to find Kai standing above them, a disembodied orc head gripped in her hand, hanging by its hair with its tongue sticking out and eyes crossed.

"Oh shi - " Fíli stammered and sat up violently, hitting his head on his pony's nose as it bent down to sniff him. "Ow...move, Daisy! Kíli! Wake up you idiot!"

"Wha - GREAT MAHAL!" Kíli shouted as his eyes opened to reveal a disfigured dead face in his, waking Thorin in the process who scrambled to his feet.

"Caught him sneaking around a little ways out at around midnight," Kai said non-chalantly, dropping the body part so it rolled in the white snow, leaving a trail of black. Thorin hid a smirk and got to his feet, stretching and eliminating the tight spots in his back and neck that came from sleeping rough. Kai rinsed her hands off in some water she had collected and began pulling out their food rations.

"Now...who wants breakfast?" she asked, not bothering to look up.

Kíli and Fíli looked down at the orc head between their bed rolls and back at their sister, at a total loss for words.


	5. Chapter 5: Shire

**A/N: sorry for the LONG wait. I've been sick (2ND TIME THIS YEAR! THAT'S NOT FAIR). I guess you all thought that I had abandoned this story, but that's no excuse so, in the words of the dreadful, hated Q: "HELLO, MY FRIENDS. I'M BAAACK!" Please review!**

"So...you killed an orc last night?" Kíli asked as they were riding along the trail once more. Kai rolled her eyes and turned around to face him.

"No. I just found a disembodied head," she answered sarcastically. "Of course I killed it!" There was an awkward silence as she turned back about. The only disturbance was an intermittent noise was the clinking of the leather against metal on the bridles and saddles, along with the soft thuds of the horses' feet in the snow. The pace of Daisy's step increased though as Fíli drew up alongside her, giving her a slight smile. She returned the expression briefly and turned her serious gaze back to the trail before them.

"So, um..." Fíli began, looking up to make sure Thorin was out of ear shot. "Do you forgive him?" Kai looked up at the straight back, bowed head, and gently rocking body a few pony lengths in front of her. Transferring her gaze over to her brother, she shrugged.

"I am undecided. If he told you that he hadn't wanted you, would you forgive him in a night?" she asked, and Fíli couldn't help but feel pinned by the sharp, keen gaze of his sister.

"I don't know," he admitted and both looked forward to Thorin's position. "He's pretty beaten up about it though. He loves you, Kai. Don't doubt it," he assured her and the girl nodded. "Are you going to say anything?"

"Should I?" she immediately asked, fixing him with that stare again.

"No, it would just...it would be nice," he finished in a lower voice and urged his pony to pull alongside Thorin.

"Fíli trying to get you to apologize?" Kíli asked from behind her and she pulled Poppy into a stop so that Mindy could come up beside her. Her dark-headed brother smiled wanly at her and they started off again.

"Yeah. I know I should forgive uncle, but..."

"It still hurts," he finished for her and she nodded. "Well, think about it this way. Have we ever shown that we hated you? Thorin has always loved you, more so than he's loved us if you ask me," he added playfully and reached out to pull on his sister's braid.

"Ow, _stop it!_" she laughed and pulled her hair over her shoulder. "Thorin will always love you two better. You're his heirs after all."

"Oh, I'd rather forgotten about that," Kíli pouted. He was silent for a few moments in contemplation. "Aw, now I don't want to go to Erebor. Cause then we'll have to sit in the throne room by Thorin's side all the time...call him our king, and all that. We'd have to be so _formal_. I don't know if I could stand it," he said, genuinely concerned, and looked over at Kai. The elf was regarding him with a raised eyebrow and then slouched over her saddle to rest her forearms on the pommel.

"I don't know...you'd look good as a royal member. You know...all dressed up in restrictive, warm clothing...not speaking unless spoken to..." She looked up at the sky and frowned in thought. "Oh and not being able to play pranks, going to fancy banquets and requiring good manners even with people you _hate,_ being _diplomatic_ - "

"THORIN, I DON'T WANT TO BE YOUR HEIR ANYMORE!" the younger brother shouted desperately. Thorin pulled his horse to a stop and looked over his shoulder to see Kai nearly falling off her horse with laughter while Kíli looked absolutely horrified. He shook his head.

"Kíli, a little responsibility won't kill you," he said pointedly and continued on, Fíli hiding his laughter by shoving his cloak into his face. "And Kai, stop terrorizing your brother with horror fantasies of life as royalty."

"Yes, uncle," Kai gasped and sat back up, eyes shining with tears of laughter. "Uncle!" Thorin twisted back around in his saddle as Kai urged Poppy to a trot and came up between the two dwarves. "I'm sorry. I acted disproportionately to what you told me," she admitted and Thorin smiled, shaking his head ruefully.

"No, it's my fault. I should have been more tactful," he told her, receiving a kind smile in response before she pulled her white horse to a halt so she could return to Kíli's side. "And boys, if your sister wants to go chasing orcs, you let her," he ordered and they both nodded.

"Yes, Thorin," Fíli responded and sat upright again, mouth twitching with suppressed laughter.

"I'll try not to mother-hen you, Kai," Kíli promised and patted her hand once in a parental manner before speeding up the pace to join the others.

_Little one, what's wrong?_ The voice from so long ago came back to whisper in Kai's ear as she saw her brothers and her uncle together riding several meters ahead of her. A small smile ghosted over her elven face.

_"I want to go with them, momma. Please can I go with them?" a little Kai begged. "I promise I'll be good! I won't get in the way!" Dís sighed and picked her baby girl up off the floor and settled her on her hip. _

_"This is something that only big kids can do, Kai. When you're big, you'll get to go with them as well."_

_"But I am big!" she protested with that adorable, infantile indignation._

_"Yes. You are big, Kai. But you're not as old as them," Dís explained. Kai frowned and burrowed her head in the dwarf's shoulder. "When you are ten years of age, then you can go with them," she assured the elf-child and Kai nodded sadly. "Hey, how about we go and visit Mr. Dwalin? Would you like that?" Kai nodded eagerly and began squirming as she tried to get to the ground. "Okay, okay, relax you little heathen! I just need to go and change my shoes before we leave." _

_"Hurry up, momma!" Kai called impatiently as she ran over to the door, bouncing on her bare feet in excitement._

_"You too, little lady!" Dís scolded and Kai frowned, stomping back over to her room to grab her small doeskin shoes from under her cot. "I don't want you running about barefoot and then coming to cry to me because of splinters." Kai rolled her eyes with childlike theatricality before putting on her shoes and running back over to her mother, taking the woman's hand in her own as they walked out the door. Dwalin was working down at the far end of the little village as a blacksmith, repairing whatever "stupid humans," in his mind, broke. Most of the village was terrified of the tall dwarf because of his gruff manner and intimidating stare. But what else did one expect of a warrior reduced to nothing?_

_Only the other dwarves weren't scared of him and treated him as normal. Kai on the other hand absolutely loved Dwalin, and the feeling was reciprocated by the adult. Her little beaming elf transformed him into a smiling, mushy person, Dís reflected and smiled to herself as Kai screamed in joy, running off to the forge as soon as it was in view. _

_"Mr. Dwalin!" she called and ran into the workroom. _

_"Hello there, you wee little lass!" came a voice that still sounded like it was growling a threat but with a clear ring of happiness to it. "What are you doing here on your own?"_

_"Momma's coming, but she was too slow!" _

_"Well, I'm sure she would be too slow!" Dwalin agreed. "Look at you prancin' about like some wee wild thing. So, what drove you to come and visit the big bad Mr. Dwalin?" There was a rising pitch of laughter from Kai as the dwarf tickled her stomach. Dís and Balin smiled from the doorway: it was so sweet to see the usually taciturn man showing some sort of emotion and interacting with little children._

_"Yeah...Uncle Thorin, Fíli, and Kíli went off on some sort of trip and I couldn't come," she said, looking sad and downcast again. Dwalin frowned with her and squatted down so he was at her eye level. He knew what trip she was talking about: it was a sort of initiation, bonding time for dwarves who became old enough to start weapons training. He knew how it felt to be the one left behind: it had happened when Balin went off with their father for the trip. _

_"Well my little princess, who needs Thorin and your brothers? You can have a good time without them!" Kai looked up, appalled at the idea._

_"But they're my _brothers!_ I do everything with them!" Dwalin made a hmph noise and pointed at Balin. _

_"Mr. Balin is my brother. Do you see us doing everything together?" Kai made a face._

_"No...you would fighting all the time."_

_"See? Sometimes it's good for siblings to have some time apart. Because, unfortunately, they're not always going to be there, lass." She looked down at the ground and sighed. _

_"I guess..." she said reluctantly. Dwalin smiled and stood up._

_"There's a festival going on down at the other end of town," he said pointedly, looking down at the lithe, thin elf before him. "And I hear someone likes dancin'." Kai looked up and smiled._

_"Can we go? Please?" Dwalin smiled and - _

"Kai!" Kai's head snapped up and she looked up at Fíli.

"Sorry, what?" she asked, as Thorin shook his head and turned back to face forward. "Did you say something to me?"

"Yeah, we were trying to ask you why you got so quiet," Kíli explained, still facing her and Kai shrugged.

"I was just remembering some things - Kíli, Fíli, WATCH OUT FOR THAT - " she shouted, pointing, but it was too late. She cringed as the thick tree branch caught both brothers in the backs of their turned heads, ponies still moving forward. "...tree." Thorin sat back upright from his hunched over posture, and looked over his shoulder to see both brothers laying on the ground, hands at the back of their heads.

"When will the two of you learn to watch where you're going?" he asked in disbelief. "It's as if you're walking around with targets on your backs." However, the dwarf pulled his pony to a stop and waited while the two fools remounted and ducked under the branch beside Kai. They were his family, his children in all respects. Even the elf.

"Now. Can we please get a move on?" Thorin asked moment of exasperation leaving him and he set off again. The trail had widened allowing the four of them to ride side by side. Kai was in awe of the outside world as birds flew by, and she reached up to touch the low hanging leaves. Thorin couldn't help but watch her with some foreboding in his stomach: his niece, a girl he had raised to be a dwarf, was acting in the manner of an elf. He knew he couldn't stamp out her nature, but it still made him feel uncomfortable.

Several hours passed and the sun just cleared the top of the mountains. The trail remained wide, but the travelers could see that it split off into two separate trails.

"I'm bored," Kíli sighed and looked up at the clear blue sky through gaps in the luscious green canopy. Thorin sighed in mock anger and turned the pony around so he could face them.

"Well, things are going to get more interesting momentarily." Kai frowned and Fíli raised an eyebrow. Kíli was still staring at something in the trees. "From here out, you're on your own getting to the Shire."

"What?" Kai asked, shocked.

"The where?" the brother's chorused, frowning in puzzlement.

"Gandalf told me that he has found the fourteenth member of our company, a young Master Baggins - "

"Oh, so I don't count?" Kai asked, insulted. Thorin gave her a look.

"Fine, the fifteenth member of our company. You see, Smaug knows elvish and dwarvish scent. Hobbit is completely new."

"So he's a hobbit?" Kíli asked, in a knowledgable tone. "And, uh, a - a hobbit is..." The other three looked at him, confused. "What exactly?"he finished, and Kai looked at him surprised.

"Halfling?" she asked as though he should know what it was.

"Is that an insult?!"

"No! A halfling!" All she got was a blank stare in response. "Did you listen to what Ori told us of his journeys when we were little?"

"What journeys? That dwarf hasn't been anywhere of consequence his whole life!" Fíli protested, and she shook her head.

"Never mind. He told me about it when you were off for weapons training. I know what the Shire is, uncle." Thorin nodded and handed her the map. Kai opened it and pinpointed their position, tracing out to where their destination was.

"Where are you going?" Fíli asked, a slight frown creasing his brow.

"I am going to the Iron Hills from here. Hopefully I will be able to get Dain to assist us on our quest," their uncle explained and began riding off on the narrower, more tangled path, vanishing in the gloom. Kai folded up the map and slipped it into her saddle bags, guiding Poppy with her knees as she did so.

"Well. Now that Thorin's gone and I know where we're going," she began mischievously and looked over her shoulder. "You'd best keep up with me." With that she spurred her horse into a canter, quickly pulling away from the startled siblings. Fíli shook his head and looked over at Kíli.

"I'm a faster rider than you are," he tempted his younger brother and Kíli narrowed his eyes at the challenge.

"No you're not!"

"Prove it."

As they rode off, trying to catch up to the horse on their ponies, Thorin shook his head in the shadows. Those three were really going to need to learn how to be cautious otherwise they'd end up being a liability. But then he turned his pony's head towards the Iron Hills and continued on. _Who knows, maybe we'll all need a little humor on this trip,_ Thorin thought to himself idly.

* * *

"Kai, Daisy and Mindy are going to have to walk now!" Fíli shouted, and Kai rolled her eyes, pulling Poppy around and walking her horse back over.

"You and your ponies," she scoffed playfully, and both brothers fluffed up with injured pride.

"You and _your_ horse!" Kíli retorted, offended. Fíli looked over at his younger brother, disappointed.

"Of all the comebacks in the world for her insulting our ponies, you come up with 'you and your horse'?" he asked incredulously. "What are you five?"

"Oi!" Kíli protested as they continued on at a walk. "I'll have you know I have good comebacks!"

"That'll be the day," Kai muttered to herself, and she and Fíli burst out laughing while their brother glowered.

"How far have we gone?" Fíli asked, reaching over and pulling the map from her saddle bags, ignoring her playful swat at his reaching hand. The sun was just past its zenith, telling the fair-headed dwarf that they had been at a canter for a solid seven hours. Once again, he marveled at the sturdiness of their steeds. "Let's see...where are we..." he mused softly to himself as they stopped at the fourth massive crossroads they had journeyed by so far. "Sarin Ford is to our left and Andrath is to our right...well then. We haven't that much farther to go."

"Not far to the Shire, maybe. But it is yet a while to Bag End," Kai responded and took the map back, continuing on at a walk.

"Bag End, what's that?" Kíli asked and she shook her head.

"It's incredible," she mused.

"What?" her dark-haired sibling asked, leaning over.

"How much of a half-wit you can be!"

"Oh, so what does that make you?!" he immediately responded, and Fíli gave a small cheer while Kai looked surprised and slightly taken aback.

"YES! A good comeback, finally!" his older brother celebrated and the dwelf shook her head.

"Should have seen that one coming. Didn't Bofur use that one all the time?" Kíli glared. "Aha! So it wasn't technically your comeback. Still have to surprise me then, brother," she gently teased, earning a punch in the arm as her brother's pony sped up its walking pace. They walked on in silence for several more hours, stopping by a stream to give their rides a rest and to cool off themselves.

As Kai lay there on her stomach with her brothers on either side of herself, fingers idly trailing in the water, she gazed at her reflection in contemplation. There was something ethereal about her, Kíli decided. Something shining behind those eyes and glowing in her pale skin. When she sang, her brothers always gaped at her, saying that it was mesmerizing and the like. It seemed as though there were some aspects of her elvish heritage that she couldn't get rid of. Something a kin to anger blossomed in her chest though, and she slashed her hand across the rippling water, disrupting her image.

"Are you okay?" Fíli asked her, slightly concerned. Kai heaved a sigh and rolled over to look at the tree tops.

"No, I'm fine. It's just me being me." Her two brothers nodded and they lay together in silence. The hazy heat of the noon air made them all slightly sleepy as they basked in the natural world around them. SUddenly though, the warm cocoon of air around her body was shattered as cold water was sloshed up out of the creek and splashed all over her face. "KÍLI!"

"It wasn't me!" the dark haired dwarf protested, holding up his dry hands. Kai swung her head around to face her oldest brother. The dwarf grinned and held up his dripping hands, quickly getting to his feet and mounting his pony.

"Fíli, you're going to pay!" she shouted after him, but he just laughed, guiding his fidgeting horse in small circles to get her to calm down.

"Well, the two of you can team up on your horses and catch me," he said pointedly and Kíli sighed, grumbling something about having to get back on a horse. "We need to keep moving if we want to get to the Shire by tonight and be on time." Kai squeezed her hair, ridding it of as much water as she could before she got to her feet and mounted Poppy, Kíli by her side as always with Fíli leading them.

"Lead us on, my king," Kai teased, bowing in the saddle to him and Kíli followed suit, making Fíli blush.

"I'm not a king," he responded. "If I was a king, then the two of you would also be leaders."

"Mahal help the country we lead," Kíli muttered and the girl laughed as Fíli nodded in agreement. As they set off again, Kai reflected in silence on their forbidden friendship, their forbidden family that they had together. It was so perfect and so precious that to the young, naïve elf, it made her believe that it was not only enduring, but everlasting. Invicible. Infinite. It wouldn't take long for that belief to be shaken to its core.

* * *

"So this is the Shire..." Fili mused as he looked about the small, dainty town. "It's very quiet..."

"Quiet? Maybe relaxing, but quiet, definitely not," Kíli responded. "Okay, tell us all you know about halflings again?" Kai rolled her eyes playfully.

"They are a small, lively folk who enjoy food, company, and parties. They don't like strangers and they don't like adventures. They can be quiet and shy when they wish and can also pass unseen by most if the need arises."

"Okay, other than the food and the unexpected party, why are we going to this Mister Boggins? If he doesn't like adventures, or strangers for that matter, then why - "

"Okay, first, his name is Mr. _Baggins_. If there is anything else I know about hobbits, its that they are rather proud people. Don't go messing up their names. The Baggins family is very prominent in the hobbit community, so many people should know them. However, I _don't_ know everything about why we picked him, so why don't you ask Thorin when you see him next?" Kíli shrugged in an offhanded manner, but Kai could see him repeating the hobbit's name silently over and over in an effort to not forget. "Don't worry about it. Baggins isn't that hard to remember."

"So, where is this Mister Baggins?" Fíli asked, and Kai shrugged.

"How should I know?"

"Great, so we're here...but not."

"Wonderful way of making it sound so much worse than it is, Kíli," Fíli teased as Kai took out the map and put it away once more. "Why don't we ask?"

"What part of they don't like strangers and adventures did you _not_ get?" their sister asked, as both of Fíli's younger siblings gaped at him.

"What?" he asked defensively. "I'm personable enough." At that, Kai raised an eyebrow and sat back in her saddle. This would be good.

Mary Rose was kneeling in her garden, tending to her vegetables and flowerbeds, when a shadow fell over her. Lightly brushing her hair out of her eyes, she looked up and froze with the slightest of yelps. A dwarf, fully armed, was towering over her. Her peaceful mentality of course only allowed her to pinpoint the sharpened blades at his side, the armor shining in the setting sun, and the obviously calloused, battle-worn hands. She plainly missed the pleasant smile on his face and the otherwise welcoming air to his generally intimidating persona.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if you knew a Mister Ba...ggins?" At a safe distance, Kai nearly face-palmed at her brother's blundering.

"I'm sorry, I don't know anyone by that name," the young woman squeaked and hurriedly began gathering up her tools.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. You see, we're looking for him to take us on an adventure - "

"_I'm sorry, I don't know anyone named Bilbo Baggins!_" she said in a failed attempt at speaking firmly with her shaking, trembling voice. Fíli looked taken aback as she got to her feet and practically ran into her house, slamming the door with a loud, hard bang.

"I never said his name was Bilbo!" he threw after her in peeved annoyance, but his words fell on deaf ears. The dwarf prince scoffed and turned back to leave the garden, ignoring his siblings' smirks. "You try the next one, Kíli..." They rode up to the next house where a young man was chopping firewood, singing softly to himself. It was a sort of lilting, drinking song in a way that made him swing the axe in sync with the beats in the music.

"Hello there, sir," Kíli said, all smiles and disarming charm. The axe stopped swinging, and the young man froze just as the young woman had.

"What do you want?" he asked, voice falsely belligerent and challenging.

"I was wondering as to whether or not you know a Mister Boggins." At this point, Kai did grind the palms of her hands into her eyes.

"I'm not familiar with that name," the man answered, swinging his axe into the chopping stump to free his hands for a quick escape. "Who are you anyways? You have a sort of warrior look to you..." His eyes warily took in the bow, arrows, and armor. Not to mention that intense, intimidating gaze.

"Oh, sorry. Mister Baggins? I always mess up his name," Kíli admitted with a smile and laughed at his own foolishness. "We're looking for a person to help us on a small trip and - "

"Is it an adventure? Because we don't want any adventures around here, and I know that Mister Baggins doesn't want one either!" He quickly retreated to his hobbit hole and slammed the door in the archer's face. Kíli glared and made to scratch something into the wood, but Fíli shouted after him.

"Kíli, don't think about it!" His younger brother rolled his eyes and returned to his brother and sister, remounting and continuing on the road in silence. "Not so funny now, is it?" Kíli glared and stared at the path ahead of him. Kai waited for a little bit before pulling off onto the grass.

"What are you doing?" Kíli asked, but she simply rolled her eyes and began taking off her armor and weaponry, leaving it in a neat heap on the floor beside Poppy.

"Watch the woman work," she answered and stood up, pulling her close fitting tunic so it was straight once more. "I'll be right back." She unwound her hair so that it hung down her back, only held back from her ears on the sides via a single looping braid. Her elvish ears were clearly visible, and she painted an overall ethereal, alluring character. Lastly, she removed her boots so that she was barefoot, and began walking down the road once more, making sure that her brothers stayed behind. She didn't go to the next house, but rather traveled down the path to the farthest house.

"Beg pardon," she began, and a seasoned hobbit looked up from his garden. His eyebrow raised fractionally as he took in her appearance.

"Yes?" he asked after a few seconds of examination.

"I've been traveling for a long while...I wanted to see an old friend of mine." Kai searched around in her memory for any sort of names corresponding to their specific hobbit. "Belladonna Took." She hoped that was the name of his mother. "Do you happen to know where she is? I always used to love her stories that she told me as a young girl."

"I'm sorry, but Belladonna died several years ago," he responded in that same harsh manner of his. "The only member of her family still alive is Mister Baggins."

"Where does he live? I want to say hello at least, having come this far," the elf offered, giving a slight smile.

"He still lives up at the old Bag-End estate. Do you still remember where that is?" he asked, slightly suspicious.

"It has been so long," the girl answered, evasively. "Was it up along that road there..."

"It's up that road, along there, and finally all the way to the top."

"Oh, yes! I remember it now! Thank you mister..." she trailed off in question.

"Hamfast. Hamfast Gamgee," the old man grumbled after waiting a few moments. A small boy ran out of the house to come to a stop beside Hamfast Gamgee and gazed up at the girl in a sense of wonder and fascination.

"Are you an elf?" the little toddler asked, but his father hissed at him.

"Oi! Get back in the house, Sam." The two of them got to their feet and went back into the house, the door slamming again.

"Well then," she said and left the garden, walking back down the road to her siblings. "I know where we're going."

"How did you manage that?" Kíli asked as she stopped beside them, but Kai just smiled over her shoulder as she finished redressing.

"Watch a woman work," she teased and remounted. From their windows, the hobbits watched in withdrawn curiosity as three horses walked by, ridden by people who were clearly warriors.

What was coming to their Shire?


	6. Chapter 6: Unexpected

**A/N: I apologize but it's going to take a while between updates. I've gotten to the movie portion and I'm a stickler about getting dialogue right so...I guess you can see where this is headed. :| sorry bout that.**

**A/N: I am so sorry, i re read this chapter to my brother afterwards and i realized how terrible it is at some points in terms of grammatical issues. I am fixing that RIGHT NOW! SORRY! THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING PUBLISHING A CHAPTER LIKE THAT! D:{**

"I swear if all of these aren't the house we're looking for - " Kíli began, glaring at the now offending round doors that he had found quaint a few hours ago, "I will personally kill that Hamfast."

"Well, I'm actually not that surprised that he would give us false directions," Kai admitted, and looked at the sky which was now pitch black.

"We had better hurry," Fíli said, voicing her next thought. "It's almost time for the others to be arriving." He looked over at Kai. "Can you see any dwarves?"

"How do you mean?" she asked suspiciously, eyeing his shadowed form beside her out of the corner of her eye.

"You're an elf as much as you don't like to admit it. Can you see anything?" Kai sighed and looked around the darkened scenery. At times she hated and yet was relieved she wasn't a dwarf because it allowed her to do things like this.

"I think I just saw Balin," she said suddenly, pointing to a house at the far side of the Shire, all the way at the top of the hill.

"You can _see_ that far?!" Fíli asked, shocked.

"You _know_ she can see that far, Fíli," his brother told him in an attempt to get him to drop the matter, but Fíli just shrugged.

"It's amazing, though! Every time I'm stunned by it. You're lucky you know," he added in an aside to her, but his sister was silent, guiding a tiring Poppy towards their destination. "We'll put our horses over there under that tree over at the base of the hill. They can handle themselves while we're gone." When they pulled off the small trail, Kai dismounted, leading her weakened horse to the trees and dropping the reigns to the grassy ground.

"Stay here, girl," she whispered, and her horse bobbed her head. Sometimes she felt the animal could understand her every word, the elf reflected and waited for her brothers to tether their ponies to the small fence beside them.

"Please let that house be the one," Fíli groaned as they walked up the hill. "If it's not I swear I am going to punch someone."

"Don't do that, it's poor diplomacy," Kai teased, and Kíli rolled his eyes.

"Making a tired dwarf walk more than he should is poor diplomacy," he muttered, earning an agreeing nod from his older brother.

"Infants," their sister jested, and their response was immediate.

"YOU HAVE LONGER LEGS!" Kíli protested in his natural infantile arguments.

"Try having dwarf stature, then you'll understand our problem with this! We're very dangerous over short distances!" Her oldest brother's point had slightly better delivery, but it still made her smile. Fíli and Kíli were the first through the gate of the garden of a Mr. Baggins (hopefully), and they nearly pushed past each other to knock on the door. She could almost see Kíli's borderline angry expression and Fíli's forced, strange smile as they waited for the round green door to swing open. Kai sighed and walked up a bit slower. If it wasn't the right house - wait. Was that a dwarvish symbol on the door?

Said door opened to reveal a very frazzled looking hobbit, who seemed only mildly taken aback at the presence of two dwarves at his doorstep.

Yep, right house. She increased her pace so she came up behind her siblings, face as serious as ever as she regarded their host.

"Fíli - " the corresponding dwarf said with surprisingly genuine pleasure.

"Kíli - " _No,_ that sounded threatening. He really had to work on that...

"And Kai," she interjected, dismissing her thoughts and giving a graceful smile.

"At your service," they all chorused, voices strangely harmonizing, and bowed, bouncing back up to stare at the even more frazzled hobbit. Kai was relieved to see that her dark haired sibling was now smiling as well.

"You must be Master Boggins," he said, voice pleasant and behind him, Kai lifted a hand to her mouth, bowed her head behind her raised arm, and subtly interjected:

"Baggins, dear brother, _Baggins." _But before he could remedy his error, the hobbit moved to close the door.

"Nope, you can't come in, you've come to the wrong house." His voice was clearly strained, and more than a little annoyed, and he tried to slam the door in their faces.

"What?!" Kíli asked and impulsively pushed the door back open on the hobbit, a gross breach of etiquette to the elf who ground the heel of her palm into her forehead even more. "Has it been cancelled?" Now, his tone was concerned, and Fíli stepped forward as well.

"No one told us," he commented, addressing his sibling more so than the hobbit. Bilbo looked confused.

"Ca - what? No, nothing's been _cancelled_ - " he began, frowning.

"Oh, that's a relief," Kíli immediately interjected, frown disappearing into a smile. Fíli walked into the hobbit hole without further ado, his younger brother following, and Kai cleaning the bottoms of her shoes on the ground outside before entering.

"I apologize for my brothers. They are a bit...aggravated right now," Kai offered with an apologetic smile to the confused hobbit and took a semi-starlted step back as Fíli cut across in front of her, dumping his assortment of blades into the bewildered halfling's arms.

"Careful with these," the dwarf prince cautioned. "I just had them sharpened."

"It's nice this place. Did you do it yourself?" Kai heard Kíli ask as she unstrung her bow and mentally applauded his people skills.

"Ah, no it's been in the family for years," Mister Baggins answered distractedly, cautiously trying to balance all of the dangerous metal swords and knives being put in his arms. And then her beloved dwarf had to go and use a chest as a shoe scraper. "_THAT'S_ my mother's glory box, can you _please_ not do that?!" Kai looked around for a convenient tree to slam her head against, but all possible candidates were too far away. She settled with the door frame.

"Kíli, Fíli, come on, give us a hand," she heard a familiar voice say, and Kíli was soon whisked away by a gruff, tall warrior that made Kai want to revert into a little girl and tackle him in a hug.

"Mister Dwalin," Kíli said, voice respectful, and Fíli followed his sibling into the dining room area, greeting Balin as they entered.

"I'm _really_ sorry. Kíli has good manners usually, but he's a bit out of his depth right now," Kai began ruefully and gently took the weaponry from their annoyed host. "Can I put these somewhere safe?" The hobbit looked around and helplessly threw his arms up in the air.

"Put it on my mother's glory box..." he answered in defeat, and the elf carefully placed the weaponry down, unclipping her quiver as well. After she had made sure both her arrows and her bow were safely leaning against the wall, she stood up as much as the low ceilings would allow and headed for the dining room.

"We'll shove this in the hole, or else we'll never fit everyone in," she heard Balin order, and Bilbo piped up from behind them.

"Hey, _everyone?!" _He watched in disbelief as the dwarves began rearranging furniture and moving things about. "How many more are there?" Everyone ignored him, and the bell rang, sending the hobbit in a furious stomp over to the door. "No. No, no - THERE'S NOBODY HOME!" Seeing the temper about to explode, Kai moved into the threshold of the dining room and waited for the tall dwarf to stand up and look around.

"Hey where do you want this?" Dwalin asked, turning around to face his brother and stopped what he was doing to smile. "Hello there, little lass!"

"Hello, Dwalin," she responded and bent over to hug the dwarf tightly. "It's been too long."

"Aye, that it has. Now, why don't you get your tiny little body back there so we can pass things to you." Kai withdrew from the hug and deftly made her way through the cramped space to the back of the small room, taking chairs and other items, placing them in position for the sixteen members who would be there.

"GO AWAY AND BOTHER SOMEBODY ELSE!" The continued rant broke into their buzzing hive of work. "There's _far_ too many dwarves in my dining room as it is. If - if this is some _clot-head's_ idea of a joke - " Bilbo broke off in a near maniacal laugh by the doorway, "Well, I must say. It is in _very _poor taste." With that, he opened the door, and the people in the dining room stopped what they were doing to go and discover the source of that very loud bang.

The rest of their company it seemed, Thorin excluded, were piled on top of each other on the threshold of the pristine hobbit hole. Even from her distance, Kai could distinctly pick out Bofur's "Oh...get _off!_" But other than that it was a mix of grumbling and muffled curses.

She pitied the hobbit. She really did.

"Gandalf." With one word, Bilbo managed to sum up every possible emotion he was feeling at that point, but, projected more than any of the others, was the of-course-you're-involved expression. Before he could say anything else, the rest of the dwarves got to their feet and the poor hobbit was swamped with a whole lot of names, and a whole lot of bouncing bows, and a whole lot of "at your services."

Kai shook her head and walked into the crowded area, greeting her friends and family. It really had been too long since she had seen them, she realized and was soon joining them as they flocked towards the dining room and pantry. However, she decided to hang back by the entrance to the dining room as twelve voracious dwarves piled into the cramped space. There was no way she was going in there.

"I thought you said that there would be food!" game Gloin's rough voice, and the rest of the hungry, foot weary dwarves grumbled in agreement while Balin, Dwalin, Kíli, and Fíli guided them to the pantry.

"_Excuse me_!" Bilbo protested in vain as he watched his "guests" march towards his orderly pantry to no doubt leave it in complete ruin and utter disarray. Kai shook her head and hung back, knowing that she would only get in the way if she was back there with that milling hive of dwarves.

"Are you not going to do something about this?" he asked, peeved.

"What do you think _I_ could do about this? _They_ raised me, so you should be happy that I'm not in there helping!" she responded voice just as peeved as his. He frowned and looked at her in confusion.

"Uh, how could _they _raise you?" he asked, tone slightly combative, his voice saying that he clearly thought Kai was crazy. "They're dwarves, and you're - "

"An elf?" she asked, voice suddenly very serious and very cold. The glare she fixed on the hobbit as she towered above him seemed to make her eyes spark with some old anger or perhaps a deep hurt. To his credit, Bilbo didn't cower but rather stood up a little taller and nodded.

"Exactly." She leaned down so she was right in the hobbit's face.

"I'm warning you," she said, voice low and uncharacteristically angry. "Don't even _begin_ to think that you understand how our world is supposed to work." And with that she marched over into the dining room and helped rearrange everything with a certain sense of vendetta about her. Bilbo shook his head in bewilderment and turned around only to see the two younger dwarves Kíli and Fíli glaring at him.

"What?" he asked, voice challenging in his annoyed state. "Why aren't you two off making a mess of my hobbit hole as well?!" Fíli took a step towards him and growled,

"If you _ever_ upset Kai like that again, I swear we will make this trip a very hard one for you." The halfling swallowed nervously. "Have you got that? _Don't_ talk to our sister like that." With that the two siblings brushed by the hobbit, Kíli returning to try and fathom how the beer barrel worked while Fíli stepped over to talk lowly with Kai. The hobbit watched as the blond dwarf gently put a hand on her arm, but the young woman shook her head and gave a wan smile. Faintly he heard her response.

"I overreacted. I forget how out of the ordinary our situation is sometimes, you know?" Fíli nodded and whispered something else to her and the hobbit was surprised when she glared. "Go apologize right now! It's bad enough _I_ threatened him, he doesn't need _half_ the company turning on him before this venture begins!"

"He upset you, Kai!"

"I know. But you can't take that personally or you'll have a personal vengeance sworn against half of Middle Earth." Suddenly, Kai raised her head and locked eyes with the eavesdropping hobbit and walked over, giving an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. It's just a sensitive topic for me."

"No, it's - it's perfectly fine," he said, slightly fazed. "What - what is your story though?" She gave a mischievous smile.

"A story for another day," she answered and looked over the hobbit's shoulder. "Let the nightmare begin," she muttered under her breath and then assumed the most innocent expression possible when their burglar turned around to stare at her in appall.

"The _nightmare?!_" he asked, gaping. "What do you mean by _nightmare?!_" Still maintaining the image of complete naïve innocence, she raised an arm and pointed behind him. The man slowly turned around as though he dreaded what he would see...what the source of all that loud racket -

"EXCUSE ME!" Bilbo shouted, running over to the pantry to try and get the raid there under control. Kai shook her head: that wasn't going to happen. "Excuse me, _not_ my knife," he ordered, following the dwarves out of the pantry as they absconded with bowls of tomatoes, horse radishes, and cheeses. "Put that back," he said with admiral annoyance as Dwalin walked by with a plate of deli sliced meats, only to repeat himself as Oin walked by with a similar bounty. "Put that back!" When neither dwarf listened, he moved into the pantry and tried to monitor what was being taken. "Not the jam please!" That clearly wasn't going to work, and he followed Bomber as the heavy-set dwarf headed for the table with three huge blocks of cheese. "Excuse me! Excuse me, a _tad excessive_, isn't it? Have you got a cheese knife?" he added in a curious aside.

"Cheese knife?" Bofur asked in disbelief, walking past him. "He eats it by the block." Bilbo heaved a frustrated sigh and purposely ignored Kili and Fili trying to open the beer barrel. He cast a baleful eye at Kai who was still standing there in an attempt to stay out of the whole fiasco until it was safe to just sit down and eat. She gave a slight shrug to say she couldn't do anything, and the hobbit turned away from her hopelessly.

"Ah, _no_ that's Grandpa Mungo's chair!" he hurriedly cried, abandoning the attempt to get the piece of furniture safely where it was supposed to be, only to see Oin walking over with a different chair. "Take that back, please. _Take it back_, it's an _antique_!"

"He can't hear you," Kai said, tapping Bilbo on the shoulder.

"What do you mean _he can't hear me_?!" he asked, thoroughly annoyed.

"He's deaf. Well, almost deaf. Here, I can explain it to him." She gently guided Oin to the side, and Bilbo watched briefly as she gave a rapid series of hand gestures in the dwarvish sign language Inglishmêk. A light of understanding filled the older dwarf's eyes and he gave a quick bouncing bow to Bilbo before carrying the chair back to its original location.

"What did you tell him?" he asked, voice strained from his stressed situation.

"It's not for sitting on, Oin. Our host would appreciate it if you put it back." Bilbo nodded his thanks, but before he could say anything else, he was running off to chase down another dwarf with some other forbidden object and she headed for the dining room. Gandalf, Bombur, Balin, Ori, and Bofur were setting table and organizing the room for the storm that was undoubtedly coming.

"That is _not_ a coaster, _put_ _that_ _down!_"

"I feel sorry for him," Kai commented, and Bofur looked at her in a slightly puzzled manner.

"What for?"

"We're turning his house upside down! I should know from life with my mother that people usually don't like it when others come into their homes and make a mess." Gandalf smiled slightly to himself and thought to himself how uncharacteristically polite the girl was in comparison to her brasher companions and family members. She definitely got that from her mother and _possibly_ Fíli though that part he doubted.

"Dwarves love visitors and so do hobbits - "

"When they know who they _are!_" the elf protested but was cut off when Dori's voice interrupted them.

"Excuse me, Mister Gandalf." The wizard walked out from the small room to meet with the smiling dwarf, Kai following so she could greet him properly. He had been whisked off to the pantry before she could say hello.

"Yes?" the tall man asked and the dwarf began pouring some tea in response.

"May I tempt you with a cup of chamomile?" he asked politely, offering the tray of tea up to the company's mentor.

"Oh, no thank you Dori. A little red wine for me, I think," he offered and left the room only to hit his head on the chandelier, earning a smirk from Kai.

"I'll take some though, Dori," she offered, and Dori smiled in something close to relief.

"Thank you, Kai. Someone here knows the power of herbal tea over alcohol," he beamed, and she nodded.

"Well, I didn't filter out everything you taught me when I was a girl," she laughed and accepted the mug from Dori.

"You enjoy that cuppa while I go and get Master Gandalf his wine," he said with a smile and moved off. At that moment, she looked up at the wizard beside her as he frowned in thought. "Fili, Kili," he said, gesturing to her two brothers as they carried in the beer keg possibly in the hopes that moving it would magically make it open. "Oin, Gloin. Dwalin, Balin. Bifur, Bofur, Bombur," he continued, ticking off the dwarves on his fingers as they went by. "Dori, Nori - " Bilbo staggered in, trying to tear a cloth free from Ori's grasp, "Ori!" the wizard scolded with a glare, and the young dwarf released the fabric, earning a scathing look from the hobbit. Bifur walked over to Gandalf and began speaking in Khuzdul before moving off. "Yes, you are quiet right Bifur. We appear to be one dwarf short."

"He is _late_ is all. He travelled north for a meeting with our kin. He will come," Dwalin said gruffly from his seat in the hall.

"Where in the north?" the wizard asked curiously, and Kai interjected.

"He left us to go for the Iron Hills. He wants to gain the support of Dain for our voyage." Gandalf looked down at her prideful, confident gaze. He gave a small, tense smile and nodded.

"Ah." There seemed to be something serious about his complexion. Something almost worried or expectant of something bad.

"What is it, Gandalf?" she asked, but the wizard simply shook his head.

"Nothing, nothing at all. I just don't expect to have extraordinary results from a talk midst stubborn dwarves." Kai opened her mouth to defend her people but at that moment Dori returned.

"Mister Gandalf," he said and both wizard and elf looked up. Gandalf raised his eyebrow as the dwarf came over to him, two extremely small glasses in his hands. Kai raised both her eyebrows and returned to the table to busy herself with the silverware to keep from laughing at her elder.

"Hm?"

"A little glass of red wine as requested." This time Kai couldn't help but give a brief laugh at the sight. "It has a little _fruity_ bouquet." Gandalf purposely avoided the sight of a very annoyed Bilbo Baggins behind him.

"Oh," he said and reached out to take the tiny glass. "Cheers." And promptly downed it in a single sip, looking mildly surprised when it was suddenly gone. Kai smirked and got him a bigger glass. "Thank you, Kai." She smiled and moved back towards the kitchen. "Kai!" She walked back over, a question in her eyes. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well." Gandalf nodded and gently led her aside. "What is it?"

"This voyage make bring us through elven territory," he began and her expression darkened slightly. "I need to make sure that I can count on you to be a liaison."

"Me?" she asked, voice disbelieving. "I'm really not the one for that job."

"I'm sure that you are, Kai. A child of both worlds - "

"By birth _only_. If I had an elven family that truly wanted me I wouldn't have been raised as a dwarf. They would have come and found me and brought me home. They didn't, so they don't deserve any measure of loyalty from me. I never received any from them." She turned but Gandalf commanded her attention once more.

"Then why do you still wear the bracelet?" he asked and she looked down at where he had caught her wrist and held it up as proof of the leather bracelet's presence. She silently met the old man's keen gaze with her own unfathomable one and pulled her hand free without answering. She shook that strange feeling in her stomach free and began walking back towards her brothers to show them how to open the barrel. It amazed her that they hadn't figured it out yet.

"Do not count out your family, Kai," he said softly to himself as she hurried away, kneeling beside the beer keg and easily opening it. He laughed lightly to himself as she elbowed Fíli back for knocking her over after she revealed the barrel's "secrets," Kíli contributing with some comment about her being a show-off. He smiled and pulled out his pipe, lighting it. "Kai." He shook his head, shoulders shaking in silent mirth. "Truly a dwarf in an elf's form." Here he grew thoughtful. "_Maera_...brightest star in the sky."

**Okay, so Gandalf knows more about her than she does. Isn't that always fun?**


	7. Chapter 7: Dinner

Kai laughed loudly along with everyone else around the table, rocking back in her chair on two legs as Dwalin finished telling his joke. There was a frenzy of loud talk, laughter, scowls, and a general grabbing of food as though it were the last meal they would have. Which, it may be in the sense that it would be their last big meal for a while. Food went flying every which way, the elf ducking under several flying pieces of bread and tomato that went her way, and sending several morsels soaring through the air herself. Beside her, Bofur got a gleam in his eyes and picked up a small hardboiled egg, hefting it in his hand.

"Bombur!" The dwarf looked up from where he was gorging himself with food. "Catch!" A momentary silence fell in the time it took for the small white object to soar through the air and land expertly in Bombur's mouth.

"OH!" Kíli shouted and there was a round of celebratory cheering midst the flying pieces of bread, cheese, and meat. Even Gandalf was participating in the dwarvish dining style. Honestly though, Kai reflected as she barely dodged a honeyed roll thrown at her head, this was becoming more of a food fight.

"Oi, FÍLI!" Gloin shouted from his end of the table. "Bring us an ale, will you?" Kai rolled her eyes as her brother poured several tankards and stepped up onto the table, bowing his head so he didn't hit it on the ceiling.

"DON'T STEP ON ANY OF THE FOOD!" she yelled at him, playfully sticking her hand in front of his shins so he stumbled slightly. Fíli accidentally retaliated by sloshing some of the beer on her head as he fell off balance. "HEY!"

"Your fault," he laughed, looking down at her. "Hey! _I'm_ taller now!"

"OI! BARTENDER!" Gloin shouted to him, laughing, and Fíli stepped over all of the food, shoving it to the side with his boots, calling out,

"Who wants an ale?" He stopped for a split second by each of the raised hands, passing off the flagons. "There you go." A few of the dwarves exclaimed in mock anger at him as he stepped right in front of their faces, and Kíli reached out to swat at his brother's knee, earning a challenging glance over his older sibling's shoulder. Kai looked up at him and reluctantly accepted one of the large cups from Fíli giving him a warning look.

"Not my fault if I get drunk," she warned him, and he laughed.

"That would be a first. You _never_ get drunk!" Suddenly a loud commotion came from down the table as Dwalin poured the rest of his drink into Oin's hearing aid, sending the grizzled old dwarf spluttering and glowering.

"Have another drink! Here you go..."

"EW!" Kai teased in mock immaturity as the half-deaf warrior pulled the contraption from his ear, put the end in his mouth, and prepared to blow the beer from it. "Aulë, why would you put your mouth on that? Who knows what's been living in there!" There was another round of taunting cat calls and cheers as people laughed at her response, to which Oin blew the ale out in her direction, splattering her with some drops. "Aw, gross!"

"Don't mess with Oin, lass!" Gloin laughed. "He may be half-deaf, but he's still got some bite in him!" To that all of the dwarves cheered and held up their mugs, slamming them together at the center of the table in a salute. Kai, after a moment's hesitation, joined in, meeting Dwalin's challenging gaze with a smirk.

The hobbit watched, slightly disconcerted from the hallway as the dining room fell silent and all of his guests swiftly downed their drinks in what seemed like a competition to see who could finish fastest. Bilbo soon found out what their actual intention was when Nori let loose a belch.

The dwarves began laughing, only to redouble in volume when Ori burped loud, long, and proud. The hobbit beat a hasty retreat from the rude table manners disrupting his house.

But then he stopped and looked over his shoulder when the table fell silent again after a _really _long, _really_ loud burp sounded that beat Ori's by a thousand miles.

"KAI!" Fíli shouted in amused disbelief, and laughter erupted again.

"Mum would skin you alive if she heard you do that!" Fíli laughed, and Dwalin shouted his agreement, laughing at the image of Dís hearing her little girl's loud belch. It would have sent the kind woman into conniptions though secretly inside she would be very proud of her dwarvish girl.

"Wow, lass. You have some lungs on you," Balin laughed, though he had until that point, been _politely_ participating in all proceedings. Bilbo turned around completely to see Kai red in the face, laughing along with the others as they gave congratulatory shouts and cheers. And as Kai was looking around at all of the harry faces about her (except her beloved Kíli of course, she told herself, because he had no beard) and leaned up against her brother, to get a knuckle rub on the head that sent her scowling and trying to tackle him. At the far end of the table, Bofur started laughing, pointing at the losing Kíli, and rocked back onto two legs of his chair only to fall backwards with a loud, resounding bang.

"OH MY GOD!" Kai shouted and all the dwarves leaped to their feet to swarm around him. "Are you okay?" There was a strange wheezing noise from the floor, and Oin stepped forward only to start chuckling and point at their fallen friend when he realized the toy maker was only having difficulty breathing because he was laughing so hard. Bifur laughed at his relative and said something in dwarvish that Kai easily translated to: _G__raceful as always cousin, but your laughter sounds like a asthmatic pony._

Once they had helped the dwarf to his feet, they made a general consensus that it was time to be done eating and getting ready for Thorin to arrive. After all, having their leader arrive to a mess and their chaotic dinner wouldn't leave the best initial impression. Kai began gathering up the few remaining morsels of food, the small scraps, untainted pieces, and separated them onto respective plates, making sure that none of the others hindered her efforts. She could see a despondent hobbit sulking off in the adjacent room, staring at the dancing flames as though they could give him some form of peace or sanity. Balancing the several plates on her arms like an inn girl, she walked over to the halfling and gently nudged him with her foot.

"By god, what do you want?!" Bilbo asked, looking up, and immediately looked apologetic when he saw it was Kai with the glad tidings of food saved from the rampage. "Sorry. I'm just..." he gave up trying to explain and dropped his head onto his knees. She sighed and sat beside him, setting the plates on the ground.

"We can be a bit overwhelming," she conceded, nodding.

"A bit? _A bit?_ You're like a bloody stampede of uncontrollable oliphants!" he laughed bitterly. He looked over at her still apologetic smile and sighed again. "I'm sorry. I'm just...so out of my depth."

"Don't worry about it. You'll get used to us," Kai said, clapping him on the shoulder and leaving to go and help with the cleaning up process, Bilbo reluctantly following as though he dreaded what he might come across. No sooner had they entered the general vicinity of the kitchen than Bilbo shoved by her and beelined for Nori who was using a doily as a towel to dry off a cup in his hands.

"E-excuse me that is a _doily_ and _not_ a dish cloth!" Nori allowed the hobbit to pull the fabric free, getting somewhat annoyed by the hobbit's constant bothering.

"Well, it's full of holes," Bofur commented from where he was leaning against the wall, finishing up his ale. His tone clearly said _of course it's not a dish cloth, because it would be utterly useless._

"It's _supposed_ to look like that, it's _crochet,_" Bilbo answered, casting the dwarf a baleful look.

"Oh and a wonderful game it is too, if you've got the balls for it," Bofur added, thinking of croquet, and, while he gained laughter from Kai and several others, Bilbo marched out of the kitchen in a huff. Kai stepped over to Bofur and put an arm around his shoulders.

"Don't worry Bofur. Your humor is just too sophisticated for him."

"O' course it is! It's my humor! I've got the most sophisticated humor in middle earth!"

"Sure you do," Bombur commented as he walked by, and Bofur stuck his tongue out at his passing cousin.

"My dear Bilbo, what on earth is the matter?" They all looked up as the hobbit and the wizard came into earshot.

"What's the matter? I'm surrounded by dwarves. What are they doing here?!" Kai rolled her eyes as Bofur and Nori fought over a string of sausage, marveling at how infantile the first one could be when he desired.

"Oh they're a merry gathering," Kai interjected into the conversation with a broad grin, and Gandalf pointed his pipe in her direction in agreement. "Once you get used to them, admittedly."

"I don't want to get used to them!" Bilbo protested sounding very much like an infant and left the room, Gandalf following. "The _state_ of my kitchen! The - there's _mud_ in the carpet; they've _pillaged_ my pantry...oh, I'm not even going to _tell_ you what they've done in the bathroom. They've all but _destroyed_ the plumbing! I _don't_ understand _what they're doing in my house__!_" Kai walked into the room and was about to attempt to placate their host when Ori walked over and interrupted the hobbit's rant.

"Excuse me." Bilbo looked up at him with an expression that said _this had better be good._ "I'm sorry to interrupt...but what should I do with my plate?" Kai looked around as she heard footsteps approaching and her brother Fíli walked over to Ori and took the plate.

"Here give that to me, Ori." And then chaos erupted again in the home that was just starting to get back under control. With an almost casual flick of his wrist, he sent the plate flying through the air into Kíli's hands down the hall, and _he_ threw it back handed into the kitchen from whence a strange sort of rhythmic clattering was coming. It sounded to the elf as though some of the dwarves were using the silverware as percussion instruments.

Kai picked up a plate of her own and threw it towards Kíli, a gleam of sprite-like mischief in her eyes, and flinched as she realized she had thrown it too high, though her sibling still managed to catch the plate, throwing it down into the kitchen with that same scary precision. Inside, Bifur was catching the plates without even looking, making the hobbit look very scared for the safety of the ceramic objects. More and more dwarves filed from the kitchen and dining room with their plates and handed them off to Kai and Fíli, watching in with roaring laughter as the two of them threw plates to their sibling down the hall, the dwarf bouncing the plates off the ceiling and nearly hitting Gandalf a few times. Finally, after a few harrowing moments, Bilbo had enough.

"Excuse me! That's my mother dressing boat, it's more than a _hundred years old!_" he shouted, pointing after the strangely shaped bowl thing as Kai accidentally threw it short, distracted by the protest of the hobbit. However, Kíli managed to use his foot to kick it up into the air and catch it with his right hand while he held several plates in his left. Meanwhile, Kai and Fíli entertained themselves with bouncing another small bowl between themselves, using elbows and forearms to knock it back and forth.

Even Kai laughed at the way Bilbo was fretting about the dish shattering in their well controlled game due to the haphazard way it was being done. He literally let out a small squeak as Fíli knocked it into the adjacent room with his elbow, right into Bifur's waiting hands, while Kai gave her sibling a high five.

Inside the kitchen, Dori, Bofur, Nori, and Gloin were using the knives and forks, along with their stopping feet to create a rousing beat that could very well have had lyrics. "Could you not do that? You'll blunt them!"

"_Ohhhh_, did you hear that lads? He says we'll blunt the knives," Bofur taunted and in the hall, Kíli began the lyrics that their rhythm sorely needed.

"Blunt the knives, bend the forks!" he shouted, synced with the song from inside the kitchen, as he kicked more plates and bowls into Bifur's waiting arms.

"Smash the bottles and burn the corks!" Fíli returned, emphasizing every other word with a bounce of one dish to the other arm as he threw it out of the room.

"Chip the glasses and crack the plates!" Kai finished, ducking under one dish and allowing it to bounce off her shoulder blade to clatter safely onto the table.

"THAT'S WHAT BILBO BAGGINS HATES!" The hobbit looked almost terrified at the unanimous shout from thirteen very loud dwarves and an equally deafening elf.

"Oi, Kai!" The girl looked over to Bofur and caught her flute as it was thrown over in her direction. "Picked it up off Poppy as we walked up." Kai beamed and stepped to the side with the dwarf, dodging flying plates, bowls, and all other manner of crockery to prepare the flute, Bofur testing his own recorder-like instrument. She frowned slightly as she tried to hear if it was in tune over the din of her singing friends and family, along with the clatter and crashing of everything hitting everything else in a deafening cacophony that echoed about the house.

"Tear the cloth, tread on the fat, leave the bones on the bedroom mat! Pour the milk on the pantry floor!" Kai frowned in concentration and began counting out the beat of the music, reconciling everyone's different pitches and notes in her endeavor to establish her own scale. "Splash the wine on every door, dump the crocks in a boiling bowl. Ground them up with a thumping pole, and in the end if any are whole..." Here, Bofur looked over at her with a gleam in his eye and raised his fife to his lips. She followed suit and prepared to take in a deep breath. "SEND THEM DOWN THE HALL TO ROLL!"

Immediately the two joined in with the music, providing the instrumental interlude while everyone else finished hurling fragments of porcelain about the hobbit hole, ignoring Bilbo who looked ready to pass out or scream. Maybe both. But this time Kai felt no sense of sympathy or pity for the halfling. This was her time to blend in, interact with, and bond with her fellow dwarves and she wasn't going to miss out on it. In the hall, she heard Gandalf laughing in his wise sort of delight, and Kai stepped out into the kitchen to help kick the rest of the dishes into a very startled Ori's hands as she continued to play. Vaguely she noticed that the rest of the dishes were neatly stacked on the table in the dining room and she stopped playing to allow Kíli to loop his arm in hers and drag her into the throng waiting by the platters, smiling broadly at her. Fíli was standing with the trio Ori, Nori, and Dori and raised his tumbler in a sort of playful triumph. Bofur nearly pranced into the room in his clumsy, spritely manner, his flute playing the last trill, the final cue.

"THAT'S WHAT BILBO BAGGINS HATES!" they all shouted as the instrument cut off and those who had drinks in their hands lifted them up to the sky midst the cheers and laughter as Bilbo stumbled into the room, Kai moving over to him.

"Told you we took some getting used to!" Kai laughed dropping her arm around his shoulders, as Kíli pointed at his stunned expression, pipe in his hand.

"Look at his face!" he laughed, earning loud laughter from Gloin and Dwalin as both followed the young prince's gesture. Even Balin had a smile on his face and was laughing at the rambunctious festivities. Bilbo certainly looked flustered and almost taken aback that the dwarves had actually for once done something that hadn't made him worry for the safety of his precious hobbit hole or his sacred belongings. Gandalf brandished his arms in a _ta-da_ manner to exhibit the halfling's guests' handiwork before giving that knowing smile of his and settling down in the chair behind him, lifting his pipe to his mouth.

Kai moved to stand beside her brother Fíli and rested her cheek on the top of his head as she silently surveyed the unexpected party around her. This certainly felt like family...it made her feel warm and fuzzy, she thought idly and then gave a childlike squeak when Fíli's hand, which had been wrapped around her waist since her height made it awkward for him to drape his arm about her shoulders, playfully caught her right in her "forbidden" area as she liked to call it, because, especially when she had been a young child, she hated being tickled. It was a hatred that extended to the point where blood would be spilled in the form of punched noses if anyone tickled her. Unless of course it was Uncle Thorin or her mother because she couldn't very well punch them and get away with it.

"STOP IT!" she shouted and her brother laughed, smiling up at her with shining blue eyes that nearly sparkled with merriment and she couldn't help but reach out to yank on one of his braids, eliciting a rewarding cry of protest from Fíli.

"You too!" he laughed and Kíli watched, laughing and smiling from his corner. Sometimes he felt that only he and Kai messed around, that Fíli had been left out of their loop as the older sibling. Well, he had obviously been proven wrong seeing that -

_Bang, bang, bang._

Everyone in Bag End realized just how loud they had been when the world fell silent after those three firm knocks on the door. Without looking to see who it was, everyone could feel the authority and power behind the strikes. It didn't take a genius to guess who had just arrived. But for some reason, no one wanted to go and open the door. It was almost as though the feared the rebuke they might receive for their rambunctious behavior. Kai, Kíli, and Fíli particularly exchanged glances of mild concern. Finally, it was Gandalf who sent everyone into action once more with three simple words.

"He's here." The rest of the company moved to clear away the last of the dishes in silence, making sure that the table was empty in preparation for whatever Thorin would want to talk to them about. The time for feasting, singing, and loud laughter was over; it was time to take on a more serious demeanor because their leader would expect nothing more and nothing less. Kai walked over to stand with Fíli and Kíli by the hall leading to the door, waiting expectantly for their host to open it. Though it had only been a few hours since she had seen Thorin last, she looked forward to being able to greet him once more. She was nervous, but still excited...she hoped she wouldn't be like this the whole trip, she began thinking, almost worried. She was about to follow the rest of her train of thought when Bilbo walked over. He was considerably subdued by the reaction of the dwarves, meaning he was no longer fretting about whether or not his house would be standing the next minute or if he would have any whole belongings by the time the night was out. Whoever this newcomer was, he wasn't a simple warrior or worker like the others. He obviously carried some sort of weight to his bearing that seemed to bring the others under some level of control (for which he was highly grateful for)...this person bore some sort of respect -

When Mr. Baggins opened the door, he understood why.


	8. Chapter 8: Arrival

**A/N: so updates should be coming faster now, sorry about the delay. Some wonderful person put an accurate transcript of the movie online so YAY!**

"Welcome, Thorin," Kai said, nodding once in deference to her elder. Thorin gave her a brief smile that was so faint it would have taken someone who knew him well to catch it.

"I thought you said it would be easy to find," the dwarf said accusingly to Gandalf as the wizard walked into his view. "I lost my way, twice. Wouldn't have found it at all had it not been for that mark on the door."

"Mark on - there's no mark on that door! It was painted a week ago!" Kai raised an eyebrow at the hobbit's indignant outburst and contemplated guiding him over so he could stare it in the face, but decided against it. He might just fall over with a heart attack if he saw the glowing Khuzdul symbol engraved into the beautiful green wood.

"There is a mark; I put it there myself," Gandalf explained patiently, and Bilbo looked ready to scream. Why was everything in his hobbit hole becoming unnatural and - and _tainted_?! Gandalf pretended not to notice and gestured the the entering dwarf. "Bilbo Baggins, allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield." Even the hobbit looked slightly cowed when he took in the full stateliness of the dwarf before him. No, Kai was not about to describe her uncle as majestic, though he did get that sort of smug air about himself once in a while.

"So, this is the Hobbit." He proceeded to walk about their short host, scrutinizing him, and Kai could nearly feel Fíli about to explode with laughter at the slightly taken aback and puzzled expression on the hobbit's face. "Tell me, Mr. Baggins, have you done much fighting?"

"Pardon me?" Bilbo asked, thoroughly confused, and Thorin made an annoyed expression as he was forced to elaborate.

"Axe or sword?" Both Kai and Fíli felt Kíli bristle indignantly between them as their relative neglected to mention the bow as a weapon, and both simultaneously stepped on their brother's foot to keep him shut up. "What's your weapon of choice?"

"Well, I have some skill at Conkers, if you must know," Fíli raised an eyebrow at the tone used, but didn't expand upon the observation any further amidst the chuckling that rippled throughout the gathered dwarves. "_But_ I fail to see why that's relevant."

The siblings watched as their uncle scoffed. "Thought as much. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar," he commented, looking around at his brethren and friends who all laughed and together they swarmed back to the dining table. "Fíli, Kíli, Kai...I see you didn't get as lost as I thought you all would," he gently teased in his rough, almost uncompromising manner.

"We may have arrived here on time, but the whole Shire knows we're here," Fíli laughed and went on to explain their ordeal in arriving at the home on time as Thorin ate. Their tale, deliberately made to sound more funny than it had seemed to the three youngest at the time, did much in the way of lightening the heavy mood that had descended upon their company with the arrival of their leader. Even Thorin, who looked distracted as though something were weighing heavily on his mind, cracked a few smiles at the antics of his two nephews and his niece. Soon though, conversation regressed back to the gravity that had existed before when Balin brought up the topic they all wanted answers to.

"What news from the meeting in Ered Luin?" An expectant hush fell over the table, and they all seemed to lean forward, wanting to hear Thorin's response. "Did they all come?" The dark headed dwarf looked up at their faces and nodded, swallowing the food in his mouth before responding.

"Aye. Envoys from all seven kingdoms." The dwarves and Kai murmured their relief and joy in the large attendance, but the elf seemed to notice something let down in her uncle's expression, so she held back her celebratory muttering. She wanted to know every aspect of the situation before she threw her arms up in the air and cheered.

"What do the dwarves of the Iron Hills say?" Dwalin added and leaned forward over the table, bringing about that air of expectancy once more. "Is Dain with us?" This time, everyone at the table saw what Kai had pinpointed earlier with the heavy breath Thorin took in before he answered.

"They will not come." His voice seemed almost bitter, and Kai sat back in her chair in disappointment amidst the noises of discontent from her companions. "They say this quest is ours, and ours alone." Her dwarvish blood rankled at the idea that dwarves could desert their brethren at a time like this, when support was so vitally needed. Could they not tell that this is not only for us but for all of our kind?!

"Settle, Kai," Thorin chastised her, and she realized she had expressed her thoughts aloud.

"She had a point," Gloin grumbled and there were further disappointed and agreeing mutterings all around. "They're practically deserting us in the face of danger! Erebor is a quest not just for you, Thorin, or for us, but for us all!"

"It is a _dwarvish_ quest!" Kíli interjected to more sounds of agreement, ignoring Thorin's warning glance that told him to hold his tongue. "We should all be united!"

"You're going on a quest?" Those seated at the table looked around, having just remembered that Bilbo existed. The hobbit had slowly drifted closer to them, trying to subtly hear more and more of their conversation. Curiosity...it was a fickle thing, Kai reflected and watched the wizard in excitement as he began to pull a parchment from his pocket.

"Bilbo, my dear fellow, let us have a little more light," he said, gesturing vaguely for the halfling to bring some source of light. As soon as Mr. Baggins had placed a candle on the table and lit it, Gandalf spread the heavy paper out to reveal a map. It was obviously old, having been passed down generations, and everyone at the table recognized it as an older map of Middle Earth.

"Far to the East, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak," the grey robed man began, and Kíli had to hide a smirk behind his brother's back at the overly dramatic way it was said. Kai rolled her eyes and tried to fight the quirking at the corners of her own mouth. Why did her brother's merriment have to be so contagious?!

"The Lonely Mountain?" Bilbo commented, reading the map over the man's shoulder. He looked up as Gloin launched into the conversation.

"Aye. Oin has read the portents, and _the_ _portents_ say it is time," he said, looking to his brother in pride. The half-deaf dwarf nodded.

"Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain as it was foretold: When the birds of yore return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end," he explained, though he seemed to be reiterating it for the sake of adding to the conversation at hand. Clearly everyone at the table had heard of the approaching time since the hobbit noticed everyone nodding in agreement. However, the young host was stuck at one word.

"Uh - " Everyone looked to him once more. "What beast?"

"Well." With that one word Kai knew something was going to happen that wouldn't turn out well for the hobbit as Bofur pulled his pipe down from his mouth to talk. "_That_ would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, chiefest and greatest calamity of our age." All around the room, people started to look nervous, even Kai feeling like a heavy stone had just settled in her gut. "Airborne fire-breather..._teeth_ like razors..._claws_ like meathooks..._extremely_ fond of precious metals - "

"Yes, I _know_ what a dragon is," Bilbo interjected, annoyed at being so underestimated in his knowledge, cutting off Bofur's increasingly disturbing description.

A sudden movement across from her made Kai start slightly as Ori stood up, leaning over the table in determination. "I'm not afraid! I'm up for it. I'll give him a taste of the Dwarfish iron right up his jacksie." She sighed and rolled her eyes as several dwarves began shouting simultaneously so she couldn't understand who was saying what, though she could hear Kíli's voice loudly in her ear.

"Sit down!" Dori scolded, yanking his younger brother back into his seat and everyone finally began to settle down again, though Balin's words soon shut everyone up for a few precious seconds.

"The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us," he said firmly. "But we number just _thirteen_, and not thirteen of the best," he paused and eyed everyone pointedly. "Nor brightest." Kai bristled as the older dwarf cast an eye over her and her siblings.

"Hey, who are you calling dim?" she asked indignantly and the white-haired dwarf rolled his eyes.

"Watch it!" Ori shouted and someone else hollered, "No!" Seeing the general insulted air about him, Oin turned to his brother Gloin.

"What did he say?" he asked, tilting the

"We may be few in number," Fíli began, slamming a fist on the table. Kai looked at him in surprise. He sounded pretty official there, she noted. "But we're _fighters_, all of us! To the last dwarf!" There were all around cheers at that proclamation. Then, Kíli felt the need to chip in.

"And you forget," he said eagerly, eyes shifting around the table to land on his topic of discussion. "We have a wizard in our company. Gandalf will have killed _hundreds_ of dragons in his time!" Kai coughed and put a hand over her mouth in a manner that made it look as though she were resting her chin on her palm. This would be interesting. Gandalf on the other hand, didn't look as enthusiastic about the turn of conversation and floundered slightly.

"Oh, well, now, uh, I-I-I wouldn't say that, I - " he stammered, trying to find the nicest way to say he had never slayed a dragon and that it was physically impossible for him to do so. However, the rest of the company saw it as the old man's humility kicking in and tried to goad him on.

"How many, then?" Dori asked and Gandalf played dumb, looking to the dwarf, a question in his eyes.

"Uh, what?"

"Well, how many dragons have you killed?" the dwarf continued. "Go on, give us a number!"

And with the wizard's dismissive "hm," Kai knew he had never slain a dragon in his life. This quest was just looking better and better by the minute, she thought sardonically to herself and dropped her head into her arms. Seeing her reaction, Gandalf began coughing on his pipe smoke in embarrassment and the rest of the company came to the same conclusion as their resident elf. Soon, all the dwarves had jumped to their feet, arguing about the number of dragons Gandalf had killed when Thorin stood up violently, chair rocking on its back legs to come slamming back on all four.

"Shazara!" he bellowed, and his dwarvish command for silence was obeyed instantly and everyone slowly began sitting back down. "If we have read these signs, do you not think others will have read them too?" He waited briefly for that statement to sink in before continuing. "Rumors have begun to spread. The dragon Smaug has not been seen for 60 years. Eyes look east to the Mountain, assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected. Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours?" There was a unanimous grumble of dislike in response to that question, and Thorin watched as his three kin glowered at the thought of someone taking their home. "Or do we _seize_ this chance to take back Erebor?" He asked, clenching a fist in a triumphant gesture. "Du Bekâr! Du Bekâr!" His cry to arms was responded by resounding cheers from around the table, including a few Khuzdul responses from Bifur. However, Balin had to ruin the mood with his interruption.

"You forget: the front gate is sealed. There is no way into the mountain." The eccentric air began to die once more and Thorin looked as though he had wanted to keep that slight deterrence out of sight and out of mind. However, he was saved from having to sit down in defeat by Gandalf.

"That, my dear Balin, is not entirely true," he began and produced an ornate dwarvish key, passing it slowly over to Thorin who looked as though some one had just struck him. Beside her, Fíli leaned forward in curiosity, his younger brother following suit.

"How came you by this?" their uncle asked, stunned, as he looked between the wrought metal and its bearer.

"It was given to me by your father, by Thrain, for safekeeping." Gandalf slowly passed it over to Thorin, the full implications of this action showing in every onlooker's face. "It is yours now." It was quite a surreal moment, Kai reflected. And of course, surreal moments were always broken by the stupidity of the sons of Dís.

"If there is a key..." he began as though thinking through a difficult problem, "there must be a door." Kai gaped.

"No, _really?_" she asked sarcastically, earning a baffled look from her brother. He obviously didn't get that what he had said was probably one of the more stupid things to have left his mouth in his life time.

Choosing to ignore the sibling conflict at the other end of the table, Gandalf pointed at a cluster of runes on the map with his pipe. "These runes speak of a hidden passage to the lower halls," he conceded and Kíli grinned, slapping his brother's back good-naturedly.

"There's another way in!" Again, Kai found it hard to grasp the utter imbecile way that her brothers were acting.

"Do you feel the need to point out the painfully obvious?!" she asked, appalled. "A five year old dwarfling could have pointed that out!"

"Kai..." Thorin said warningly and the three promptly shut up so that they could listen to Gandalf once more.

"Well, if we can find it," he said in answer to Kíli's statement. "But dwarf doors are invisible when closed. The answer lies hidden _somewhere_ in this map and I do not have the skill to find it. But there are others in Middle-earth who can." Here, Thorin's gaze turned ever so slightly darker as he thought of the accursed breed: elves. "The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth, and no small amount of courage," the wizard continued, drawing the leader's attention once more. "But, if we are careful..._and_ clever, I believe that it can be done."

Ori nodded and piped up, deciding to voice his opinion once more. "That's why we need a burglar."

"Hm," came a voice and again every head at the table swung unanimously to look at the hobbit. "A good one, too. An expert, I'd imagine," he commented as he stared at the map over Gandalf's shoulder.

"And are you?" Gloin asked pointedly and Bilbo looked up, confused.

"Am I what?" he asked in a way that said he had clearly been distracted when Gloin asked him the question.

"He said he's an expert! Hey hey!" Oin cheered, teasing the hobbit. Several of the dwarves laughed at the immediate discomfort and denial that burst forth from Bilbo.

"M-Me?" he asked, completely taken aback. "No, no, no, no, no. I'm _not_ a burglar; I've never stolen a thing in my life!" Gandalf raised an eyebrow at that and Kai could picture the wizard going through all of the things their host must have taken when he had been a young hobbit running wild in the Shire.

Amidst the laughs and grumblings, Balin spoke up. "I'm afraid I have to agree with Mr. Baggins. He's _hardly_ burglar material." However, the manner in which he said it, along with the look he gave those seated around him made Kai wonder if the hobbit would fall for the bait and try to defend himself from the gentle teasing. However, Bilbo nodded in agreement, and the white bearded dwarf's sibling joined in.

"Aye, the wild is no place for gentlefolk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves," Dwalin said sagely, and Kai subconsciously braced herself for the tirade that she felt was certain to come from the halfling across the room from her. Contrary to her assumptions though, Bilbo continued to nod in agreement and gestured towards Dwalin in confirmation of that fact.

So much for their host's temper, the Dwelf thought to herself and sat back in her chair, rolling her eyes as the dwarves around her began arguing once more. Couldn't they not argue about something so trivial for once? So what if he didn't want to be a burglar?! They got a good meal and had a good time and -

Apparently she was the only one who had grown exasperated with her kin's bickering, for Gandalf suddenly stood, rising to his full height in his anger. Everyone fell silent as a sort of wind seemed to creak through the now darkened hobbit hole and as the wizard shouted. Though essentially it wasn't really shouting. The wizard's voice had been amplified and Kai winced as it hurt her hearing. She had never liked it when he had done that...even when she had been a child and listened in on an argument between her uncle and Gandalf, that booming voice had left her with ringing ears and an aching head. Dimly, she managed to discern what was being said.

"Enough! If I say Bilbo Baggins is a burglar, then a burglar he is." Behind the tall figure, Bilbo gestured as though to ask _Do _I _have any say in this?! _"Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet. In fact, they can pass unseen by most if they choose. And while the dragon is accustomed to the smell of dwarf, the scent of hobbit is all but unknown to him, which gives us a distinct advantage." Again Bilbo raised his hand in silent protest, only to be completely ignored. "You asked me to find the fourteenth member of this company, and I have chosen Mr. Baggins. There's a lot more to him than appearances suggest, and he's got a great deal more to offer than any of you know, including himself. You must trust me on this." In the silence that followed, Kai heard a slightly exasperated sigh from Kíli as he made some off-handed remark about this not going to go so well.

"Very well," Thorin finally answered, though in subtext it was quite clear he was still against the notion. "We will do it your way. Give him the contract," he said pitching his voice so that it carried over the hobbit's frazzled "No, no, no!"

"Please - " the halfling tried again as Balin handed him a very long contract.

"Alright, we're off!" Bofur said in playful enthusiasm, drawing laughter from the rest of the table, particularly the three heirs. The toymaker had always been one of their closest family friends, a sort of uncle, and it clearly showed in his interactions with them.

"As long as he gets through that scroll by daylight!" Kíli corrected and Fíli slapped him on the back in his laughter. Kai took her attention off of her relatives and instead looked towards Bilbo.

"It's just the usual," Balin reassured him. "Summary of out-of-pocket expenses, time required, remuneration, funeral arrangements, so forth."

"Fu-_funeral_ arrangements?" he stammered as he stepped back a few feet to read the contract in the slightly quieter atmosphere of his hall. A sense of strange foreboding settled in the girl's stomach though as she watched her uncle lean in to talk in a soft undertone to the gray bearded man beside him. She closed her eyes and reached out with her heightened sense of hearing.

"I cannot guarantee his safety," Thorin whispered, voice low.

"Understood."

"_Nor_ will I be responsible for his fate."

"Agreed." Kai felt herself starting to glare but stopped just before her uncle turned back to face the table. Well then. She knew how it felt to be the little one, the odd one out. And if no one was going to protect him on this trip, then in the name of Aulë, she was going to.


	9. Chapter 9: Song

**A/N: I'm sorry I'm going to be on a BIG MASSIVE HUGE writing hiatus. School's really decided to screw with my life right now and I'm basically working around the clock on that. So, as of now, I'm really sorry but I probably won't be updating until closer to summer. Maybe there will be a few random updates, but not likely. I'm sorry... **

"Terms," Bilbo muttered, casting an eye down the list. "Cash on delivery, up to but not exceeding one fourteenth of total profit, if any. Seems fair. Ehh..." he trailed off as he tried to find his place again. "Present company shall not be liable for injuries inflicted by or sustained as a consequence thereof - " Gandalf suddenly looked slightly concerned about the direction this conversation was taking " - including but _not_ limited to lacerations ... evisceration…_incineration?_" he cried, looking up from the paper to gape at his "guests."

"Does he really need to ask? It's a dragon for crying out loud," Fíli muttered, and Kai made a noncommittal noise in reply.

"Oh, aye," Bofur answered in confirmation. "He'll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye." Beside Kai, Kíli cleared his throat in slight discomfort, earning a teasing poke from his brother. Bilbo didn't look much better and in fact appeared to be a little short of breath.

"Huh," the small man answered trying not to fall over it seemed as he took deep breaths.

"You all right, laddie?" Balin asked, as though he actually cared about whether or not their burglar was okay. In response, Bilbo bent over, nauseous and not steady in the slightest.

"Uh, yeah..." he began, tone explanatory. "Feel a bit faint," he continued gesturing vaguely in the air. Fíli dropped his head into his hands as Bofur felt the need to elaborate on his explanation of Smaug.

"Think furnace with wings!" he tried with a grin, thinking that the hobbit wasn't getting the complete idea.

"Air, I-I-I need air!"

"I see where this is heading," her older brother grumbled, and Kíli nodded in agreement with Fíli.

"Kind of hard not to," he answered, and Kai rolled her eyes.

"Of course it's kind of hard not to. It's obvious! And obvious is what the two of you seem to only notice," she answered as though they should know that before turning her attention back to the conversation at hand.

"Flash of light, searing pain, then _Poof!_ you're nothing more than a pile of ash." She dropped her head into her hands. Bofur, as much as she loved him, didn't seem to realize when enough was enough in terms of antagonizing. Bilbo was breathing heavily, trying to compose himself while the others stared at him, Thorin with a slightly disinterested, expectant manner.

"Hmmm," he began, thinking over what had been said and came to a decision. "Nope."

And he promptly fell over backwards in a complete faint without warning, list of terms drifting to the floor to rest beside their incapacitated burglar.

"Very helpful, Bofur," Gandalf said in a manner that clearly said that the two of them would be having words later as he and Balin helped the hobbit to a chair in the adjacent room.

"And _that_ is supposed to be our burglar?" Fíli asked in disbelief, eliciting murmurs of agreement from around the table and Kai kicked his shin. "_OW!_"

"He's a hobbit, Fee. He's never been out of the Shire before, cut him some slack," she chastised, but Thorin shook his head as well.

"No. He's too weak for a mission like this. But if Gandalf demands that he come, then he shall. I may be mad enough to try this voyage, but I am not mad enough to anger a wizard." But Kai wasn't ready to let the matter sit.

"I've never been out of that small town either, uncle. I've never fought before. What makes you so certain that I won't be just as useless as he will?" Thorin leveled an angry glare at her and was about to interrupt when Dori interceded.

"Let me explain it, Thorin. Kai, you are trained for battle. You're a wicked shot with that bow of yours there, and we _all_ can guarantee you that you'll be at least a smidgen better at this trip than Mr. Baggins."

"But my point is - " she continued, gesturing firmly with her hand.

"We get your point, Kai," Thorin said forcefully. "It's not a telling one." With a slightly peeved expression, she fell silent and got to her feet, heading towards the room where Bilbo and Gandalf were talking. thorin sighed and shook his head, the rest of the company watching him with almost wary expressions.

"It's just a phase, Thorin," Dwalin said reassuringly and Nori nodded.

"She's just sympathetic. Nothing wrong with some sympathy," he commented and Thorin shook his head.

"There is everything wrong with sympathy. Especially if it is misplaced. I can't have her sacrificing her life every two steps to keep that halfling alive on this voyage. She will be a valuable asset in battle if she can stop her compassionate nature."

"Well, laddie, that is a very important part of her personality," Balin said pointedly and Thorin swung his glare around to stare at his old friend. "You can't just expect her to light it and extinguish it like a lantern."

"That is exactly what I expect her to do," the king answered and the rest of the table fell silent as the situation grew increasingly awkward. "Kíli, Fíli, try and explain that to your sister," he said and rose, pulling Balin to the side so he could speak with him.

"Yes uncle," Fíli answered sullenly and looked over to Gloin. "What does he expect me to do?" Gloin humphed and thought about it.

"Well, your sister is a tough nut to crack so she will probably ignore everything you say. Unless you give her the absolute worst case scenario then she might listen." Kíli frowned, the idea not settling well with him.

"What would the absolute worst case scenario be?" Here, Oin leaned forward to face them.

"Well, in the heat of battle, when she's not thinking clearly due to the fire in her blood that is roused in a fight, she may see Bilbo in some trouble. Then, driven by her compassion, she'll try to go and help the wee thing, probably fail, and get severely injured herself. From there, she may not die immediately. Given the fact that she is an elf, she probably won't. That means that our burglar would have died and she will suffer from sever pain and infection until her final breath. Tell her that and then see what she does."

"I still don't think that's going to - " Fíli began, but the healer cut him off.

"Send her to me to hear a _full_ medical description of what that will be like and I'm sure I can talk some sense into her."

"Fair enough," Kíli cut in before his brother could respond and that was that.

* * *

Kai was lurking in the doorway to the sitting room, listening so intently on the conversation there that she failed to hear what her family had been discussing literally behind her back. Even if she had heard what they had been saying, she wouldn't have agreed with them.

Then again, she never really agreed with them outwardly. Inwardly, maybe, but on the outside she loved to be argumentative. It made for such fascinating and entertaining talk.

"The world is not in your books and maps, it's out there.!" Gandalf cried, almost exasperated and she leaned forward a little more.

"I can't just go running off into the blue!" the hobbit protested from where he was sitting in one of his chairs by the fire. "I am a _Baggins_ - " he made a gesture with his hands and pointed to the ground, "of _Bag_ _End!_"

"You are also a Took!" Here the hobbit looked down as though he didn't want to discuss that part of his heritage. It reminded Kai of herself. She almost pitied the hobbit, but the wizard clearly didn't as he went on to talk about his family in detail. "Did you know that your great-great-great-great-uncle, Bullroarer Took, was so large he could ride a real horse?" Kai frowned. _Great-great-great-great-uncle...he might as well not even be related to Mr. Baggins anymore at that point, _she mused but soon became reengaged in the topic at hand.

"Yes." It was a reluctant, almost sullen answer.

"Well, he could," Gandalf continued, answering his own question, which was somewhat unnecessary seeing that Bilbo had already provided that same answer. "In the Battle of Green Fields, he charged the goblin ranks. He swung his club so hard it knocked the Goblin King's head clean off, and it sailed a hundred yards through the air - " Kai raised her eyebrows in surprise. Maybe there was more to this hobbit than met the eye - "and went down a rabbit hole. And thus the battle was won, and the game of golf invented at the same time." Kai coughed and both of the room's inhabitants turned to look at her.

"I do believe you made that up," she said, fighting a smile. "The golf bit, I mean."

"Well, all good stories deserve embellishment," the tall man admitted and she nodded in an "of course" manner. Here, he looked down to the hobbit once more. "You'll have a tale or two to tell of your own when you come back."

Here, Bilbo looked worried and eyed the wizard carefully. "Can you promise that I will come back?" Kai nearly shivered as the hobbit's eyes briefly met her own, and she had to look down.

"No," Gandalf finally answered, making sure that the halfling before him understood the full import of his words. "And if you do, you will not be the same."

The hobbit scoffed and shook his head.

"That's what I thought." Immediately the hope that had been starting to blossom in Kai's heart that their burglar would join them began to shrivel up and die. "Sorry, Gandalf, I can't sign this. You've got the _wrong_ hobbit." He got to his feet and left the room, walking briskly down the hall, but not before he felt his gaze drawn up into the fathomless one of the mysterious elf lurking in the doorway. There was something frightening in that momentary glance and he hurried his pace down the hall. The wizard sighed heavily and walked over to drop a hand on the dwelf's shoulder.

"Do not look so let down, little one. He will come around, I promise," the elderly man encouraged and offered a slight smile as Kai looked up into his face.

"How can you be sure?" she asked simply. "How can anyone be sure of anything..." There was something bitter in her tone as she turned and walked away back to the kitchen, hoping to find something lightening in remaining by her brethrens' sides. She brushed past her uncle and his white-bearded companion without a second glance, smiling habitually finding its way back to her face as she rejoined her companions.

"It appears we have lost our burglar," Balin commented as they watched the hobbit leave, voice disappointed. "Probably for the best. The odds were always against us." Thorin looked at him, an almost indifferent questioning look in his eyes. "After all, what are we? Merchants, miners, tinkers, toy-makers, an adopted elf...hardly the stuff of legend," he sighed as he looked at the celebrating dwarves in the adjacent room, an almost wistful smile on his face as he took in the beaming expressions and vibrant gestures of the younger members of their company.

"There are a _few_ warriors amongst us," Thorin said in reminder, and Balin smirked in response.

"_Old_ warriors," he countered, but Thorin shook his head.

"I will take each and every one of these dwarves over an army from the Iron Hills." Kai felt a shiver go through her at the conviction in that statement. "For when I called upon them, they came. Loyalty. Honor. A willing heart. I can ask no more than that." Balin put a hand on his friend's shoulder, trying to gain Thorin's full attention and convince the king of his point.

"You don't have to do this." A slight frown crossed Thorin's face. "You have a _choice!_ You've done honorably by our people. You have built a new life for us in the Blue Mountains, a life of peace and plenty." He paused and waited for his words to sink in. "A life that is worth more than _all_ the gold in Erebor." However, Thorin's expression grew more set than it had been before as he procured the key that Gandalf had given him.

"From my grandfather to my father, this has come to me," he began and Balin watched attentively. "They dreamt of the day when the dwarves of Erebor would reclaim their homeland. There is no choice, Balin." Here, it almost seemed that the man before the aged and weathered warrior looked sad. As though he was burdened by this, not exulted by it. "Not for me."

"Then we are with you, laddie." Thorin gave a slight smile in thanks. "We will see it done." With that, the two of them walked back into the once more crammed dining room and looked at each of the members of their company. Merchants, miners, tinkers, toy-makers, an adopted elf...

Thorin gave a slight smirk, a half-smile to himself.

Maybe they were the stuff of legends, he decided and lowered himself into a chair, rejoining the conversation and dropping his intimidating persona in favor of a more casual manner while Gandalf sighed in contentment and leaned in the entrance of the room. Thorin met the eyes of each of his friends and kin as he spoke, looking at each of them with that same twinkle in his eye. This would be an interesting voyage, he was sure. With or without Mr. Baggins along. Then, he reached Kai in the middle of the fray.

Her strange gaze locked onto his, and he had to clear his throat and try not to shiver under its intensity. She had always done that when they looked at each other, and there was something strange to that gaze. It was almost as though she was reading his mind as she did so. He wondered if that was a talent that elves just game by. He didn't think it was, but he never knew...He did, however, know that a select few of the Lothlorien elves could. His father and grandfather had warned him about the Elf Witch who lived in the woods outside the lands of Moria.

But there was no way that she had come all the way from Lothlorien. It was more likely she had come from Rivendell, or perhaps Mirkwood, but that was pushing it. He knew for a fact that the Mirkwood elves couldn't telepathically communicate from his dealings with that damned king Thranduil. He absentmindedly answered Nori's question about supplies and looked down at his hands, glowering as he thought about Thranduil, but still talking, maintaing that outward appearance of everything being okay. That blasted, arrogant, stuck-up elf was -

_Don't get angry. You'll just make things hard._

Thorin stopped talking and stared at Kai, who looked just as confused as he was before she stood up and shakily left the room, moving to sit in the living room, staring at the fire in a very similar manner as Bilbo was in his bedroom. She looked down at her hands and hissed in anger as she saw that they were shaking and trembling. But no matter how many times she clenched and unclenched her hands, they still shook and she settled for trying her mother's meditative methods. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths, allowing her mind to slip away into a peaceful place in the fat back of her consciousness.

She had no idea what had happened back there. One moment, she had been staring at her uncle. The next, she had spoken, but her lips had not moved. Had this been any other instance, she would have just said that she had been thinking in her head. That was normal. She had done that many times before. But the fact that her uncle had just suddenly looked as though she had spoken directly to him...that expression on his face of complete shock and confusion -

_A fire crackled before her in an elegant stone hearth. _

Kai's brow furrowed slightly. Where was that? She had never seen that fireplace before.

_White hands gently cradled her close and a brilliant, warm, silver light seemed to envelop her. And then, a voice so rich and magical it could only be that of an elf, began singing softly to her. The words were jumbled as though seen through a fogged glass, and she understood none of it. All she knew was that it sounded like some sort of lullaby. Fanuilos heryn aglar...Rîn athar annún-aerath..._

_Blue eyes flashed in her mind, framed by long tresses of golden hair. The blurred world around her was silver and light blue - _

She gasped and opened her eyes, rocking forward slightly.

"Are you alright, lass?" She looked around at concerned Nori.

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine," she lied, shuddering and leaning closer to the warmth of the flames, hoping that their heat could drive out the strange thoughts plaguing her mind.

"Are you sure? I almost had to catch you just then - "

"Yes, I said I'm _fine_, Nori!" she snapped, glaring, and the dwarf started slightly, eyeing her with some confusion.

"Alright, I was just making sure...You left the room in a bit of a hurry there. Thorin looked a bit flustered." Kai didn't answer but turned back to the flames, watching the orange tongues dance and flicker in the night, and Nori, taking the cue that he wasn't wanted, shrugged and left the room to report back to the others. These were the flames she knew, not those strange nearly blue ones that had just flooded her mind. Those eyes had been disconcerting...that ethereal glow unnatural. She shuddered again and took an unsteady breath. She was so tense and strung up in her own mind that it was no surprise that she jumped when Fíli dropped a hand on her shoulder.

"OI!" he said loudly when she launched to her feet and reflexively dropped her hand to her empty knife scabbard by her hip. "Easy there...you alright?"

"Fine," she said bitterly again and sat back down, hunching over to glare at the embers once more. "Just startled me is all."

"Yeah, well, I've startled you before, you've never gone to pull a knife on me."

"Well, you startled me pretty badly. Be thankful I didn't _have_ a knife." He knelt by his sister's side and put a hand on her arm.

"What's going on? You and uncle went all weird back at the table. Seriously, Thorin looked like you had just thrown a piece of food at him or...almost as though he was shocked by something." Kai looked down at her older brother and shook her head ever so slightly, looking away. It was an immature action, and Fíli knew it. "Kai..." he said in playful warning, but she just shook her head again. "You can tell me what happened," he cajoled and squeezed her forearm in comfort. "You're my baby sister, and I'm your big brother. You can tell me whatever."

"I spoke in uncle's mind," she finally said in an undertone, rocking back and forth slightly. The blonde dwarf drew his head back slightly, surprised. "I'm _not_ supposed to be able to do that," she said, voice low and emphatic. She locked eyes with her sibling, hoping for some sort of comfort there. There was none.

"I, uh...well...we don't know who your birth family was, maybe they could - " he offered, taken aback himself.

"They're not family," she interrupted, angry. "They are _not_ family. If they were family, they would have come looking for me." She looked away again. "And I don't care who they are. I don't want to be able to talk in people's minds!"

"Maybe it was just a fluke. Maybe you elves can do that every once in a while, if you really focus on it or something..." It was a weak suggestion, but the young girl seized it readily, as though it were a lifeline.

"Yeah. Yeah, maybe." However, there was a slight tremble to her voice, buried deep down, that said she wasn't convinced. "Thanks Fee." Her brother gave her a wane, lopsided smile.

"It's my job," he joked and pulled briefly on her hair before rising to join the sudden influx of dwarves as they all filed into Bilbo's living room, pipes in their hands as they prepared for their evening ritual of smoking. Even Thorin handed Kai a pipe, giving her a glance that clearly said _don't tell your mother that I'm initiating you into this aspect of dwarvish life, or she'll kill me. _She smiled in understanding: it wasn't as though this was the first time. As an instrumental part of dwarvish society, Kai had already been introduced to the finer art of smoking a pipe by her siblings.

Not that either her mother Dís or Thorin knew about it.

Finally, after a few minutes of silence, someone, the elf wasn't sure which, began humming. It was a song she had known since she was a baby, cradled in her uncle's strong arms by the fire. She closed her eyes and memories surfaced from long ago, huddled by the fire with her family, listening to the deep tones of her guardian's voice as he sang. Soon, she pulled herself back into reality, fighting a shiver as Thorin began to sing.

"Far over the misty mountains cold to dungeons deep and caverns old...we must away ere break of day to find our long-forgotten gold." Kai looked over at her brothers from her position seated on the floor and smiled as she saw both of them stead-fastedly stuck with humming, not trusting their voices with the low baritone needed to sing the song in some form of harmony and melody. She, however, slipped into the music nicely, providing a single higher pitch to the voices of the men all around her.

"The pines were roaring on the height. The winds were moaning in the night." Kai looked over her shoulder, face shadowed by the half light of the flames, to watch as Bilbo crept closer to the doorway, drawn by the near sepulchral tones of her brethren. There was a burning light of adventure shining in his eyes and she gave a gentle half-smirk towards Gandalf, who was also listening in from his post in the hall, before turning back to the others, joining in for the last line of the song.

"The fire was red, it flaming spread...the trees like torches blazed with light."

This was it, Thorin thought to himself as he looked around at his waiting company, at the set gaze of Kai, the same gaze that he had found disconcerting mere minutes ago. They were all finally set in the mood he desired: the heaviness, the somberness, even the dogged determination. They were going to take back Erebor. And no one was going to stop them.


	10. Chapter 10: Memory

"Kai, can we go now?" Thorin asked, impatient, as the elf continued to clean the last of the dishes, swept, and otherwise endeavored to make the hobbit hole nice and pristine once more. "We really do need to get moving!"

"You can go if you want, I want to make sure that Mr. Baggins doesn't have to wake up to a mess that a horde of dwarves left strewn across his home! It's bad manners!"

"Since when did dwarves care about manners?" Bofur asked, tone almost whining as he reluctantly took Gandalf's offered broom and started sweeping as well. Kai threw him a look but didn't answer. "Oi! All of you start helping to clean! I don't want to be the only one..." About two hours passed after several unsuccessful attempts to get all of the dwarves working in utter silence to clean up a mess that they didn't even believe was theirs, and Kai eventually gave up and followed her uncle's movements to usher her out of the home into the cold night air.

"Where are we headed to?" she yawned and caught something about some sort of inn before she basically went comatose walking. In fact, when she woke up in the morning, she didn't know how she had even gotten to her bedroom though all the dwarves swore that she had walked up to her room on her own and had in fact been moving about on her own without any assistance. They had thought she was perfectly lucid.

That morning as they all sat there, eating and conversing, Kai turned to Gandalf.

"Gandalf, I have a question..." she began, pushing Fíli's head away as her siblings tried to eavesdrop, sending both into a bickering argument between each other.

"Hmm?" the wizard said vaguely as he reached over and stole his roll of bread back from Nori who threw him a rather daunting glare. However, it wasn't as daunting as the returned glare that looked like storm clouds had descended upon the old man's eyes and the dwarf muttered something about never taking his food again.

"Can...I mean do - " she stopped, trying to wrap her head around what she was trying to ask. Finally noticing her floundering, Gandalf turned his full attention to her, taking a deep breath of his pipe.

"Yes, what is it, my dear?" he asked and his full attention gave her a sense of confidence.

"I was wondering," she began purposefully and turned to look down at the food she was twisting about her fork. "Can - do elves need to sleep?" She closed her eyes as she asked the question, and Gandalf frowned at the distaste that was written upon the young one's face as she asked the question. "I don't remember anything from last night. I was so tired that I just...I blacked out as soon as we left Mr. Baggins' house, but I don't remember anything until I woke up this morning. But everyone has said - even you - that I was awake that whole time." Gandalf frowned in thought.

"Awake may be a bit of a strong word," he acknowledged. "You were awake but you were a bit vacant. No, you weren't sleepwalking," he answered as he saw her open her mouth to make a suggestion. "But in answer to your original question, yes. Elves do sleep, though it is a different kind of sleeping than the one you know. They weave together the world of night and day to create a sort of walking sleep." He watched her carefully as she took in the information.

"Do you - I mean, is it possible that that's what happened to me last night?"

"Quite," the gray robed man answered and turned to talk with Balin about something serious, voices continuing on in an undertone. Kai, feeling considerably down, looked at the elvish bracelet tied about her wrist cuff and idly picked at it.

_"What's that, Uncle?" her thirteen year old voice asked._

_"It's a bracelet for you. We found it when we found you in the snow. It's elvish." Thorin fastened it about her wrist and gently rested his calloused hand on her silken hair. Kai frowned as she looked at it. "What's wrong?"  
_

_"Why did you keep it?" she asked, confused. "You don't like elves, why did you keep it?" Thorin looked uncomfortable, but his glance towards Dís for assistance was pointedly ignored by the female dwarf. _

_"It is true that I don't like elves, little one. But it is not true that I don't like you. You are precious to me, and I can't take your heritage away from you. I wanted you to have something that was their's and this was all that would have fit for you and all that was salvageable." _

_"You didn't have to keep something so accursed, Uncle. You shouldn't have." Kai got up and moved to throw it in the fire, but Thorin stood up and grabbed her wrist, refraining her from disposing of it. She met his serious eyes and he gestured for her to sit down._

_"Kai, you must understand that there is more to you than being a dwarf. You are an elf. You have another name somewhere. You have...abilities that we won't have. You'll have keener eye sight; better, longer memory; better singing voice," he teased and Kai grinned. Here, his tone grew sadder almost. "But there will be other things that will keep us apart. You age differently. You live so much longer than we do. Hundreds, thousands of years longer," he continued, almost wistfully and Kai noticed how his grip tightened on her hands. "You will be alone at one point in your life. And you'll need someone to take care of you." He closed her hands over the bracelet. "I hope this can lead you home when that time comes. This looks like a seal, but it isn't one that I've seen before. It will be able to guide you back to your true family."_

_"I don't WANT my true family!" Kai cried standing and glaring at her uncle. "YOU are my true family! If my - my_ elvish_ family had wanted me, had been my true family, they would have stopped at NOTHING to find me and bring me back!" She brandished the bracelet. "This is a bondage! I don't want it!" With that, she threw it to the ground and marched away, angry and vindictive, stalking turning quickly into running as she fled into the woods and ran to her special clearing that she had gone to so many times before with her brothers. She leaped into the river and swam to the far bank, curling up in the gentle arm of the half submerged tree branch, the remnants of a mighty giant that had toppled into the water, roots torn up out of the ground and cast down by some large storm. She had no idea how long she had been crying when she heard footsteps approaching. _

_Please not one of the human boys, please not one of the human boys..._

_"Kai?" a voice asked and she looked around to see Balin standing behind her. He walked down to the bank and sloshed through the water to put a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"_

_"Uncle tried to give me an elvish bracelet he said belonged to my parents," she muttered, now feeling silly as she stated why she was now crying in a river. "I don't want to be an elf, I want to be a dwarf! WHY can't he see that?!" Balin sighed and looked at the little child, tucked away in the wood, just as she had been so many long years ago. He gave a smile and squeezed her shoulder again._

_"It's alright lass. Thorin didn't mean anything by it, he just...he just thought that you might like something of your home. You know, maybe to revive some memories or the like." Kai shrugged off his hand. _

_"Not you too...DO NONE OF YOU WANT ME TO BE A DWARF, AND JUST A DWARF!?" she shouted and sloshed to her feet, running up the bank and vanishing into the wood as the white haired dwarf tried to pull his heavy boots out of the thick mire. _

_"What do you mean she's GONE?!" Dís shouted, brandishing her wooden spoon as though it were a battle axe. "BALIN, WHAT DID YOU DO!?"_

_"I tried to talk to her, but she wasn't - let's leave it at she was rather disturbed." Thorin looked down guiltily. _

_"That may have been me..."_

_"What's this I hear about Kai being missing?!" came a new voice that practically cracked with concern, and everyone looked around to stare uncomfortable at Fíli as he stood in the doorway of the kitchen, a stricken Kíli beside him. Before Dís could say anything or point to Balin and their uncle for an explanation, Kíli saw the discarded bracelet on the ground and everything clicked. He grabbed it and pushed off the wall, sprinting out the doorway for the woods, leaving everyone gaping slightly at the speed with which the usually slightly slow dwarf had picked up on the situation. Fíli shook his head and walked in to sit at the table, expression clearly saying that he was waiting. _

_"KAI?" Kíli called as he walked in the woods, searching around the trees and shrubbery for any sign of his elusive little sister. "Where are you you stubborn little dwarf..." A light giggle reached his ears and he looked around to see blonde hair vanish around the corner. "Kai..." he play growled and ran to the tree, reaching out and grabbing Kai's ankle as she tried to clamber up into the tree. "Come on down you little varmint - OW!" The dwelf, who was now bigger than her brother, landed painfully atop the dwarf and both collapsed in a laughing heap on the ground. _

_"Give me your arm, Kai. Please?" he asked and his sister, unable to resist his puppy dog eyes, held out her arm and her eyes filled with sadness as he fastened the elvish bracelet on her wrist. _

_"You're branding me," she muttered bitterly, but her brother grabbed her in a hug before she could go anywhere. _

_"No we're not. We're acknowledging your diversity. You're not an elf, but you're by dint of nature not entirely a dwarf. So what do we call you, my impossible little girl?" he asked and Kai leaned into his hug. _

_"A dwelf," she said finally, trying the name out on her tongue. "I'm a dwelf." _

Kai gasped and nearly fell off her pony, looking about her. _PONY?! _

Not again.

"GANDALF!" she shouted, pulling Poppy to a stop, and scaring half the people around her, some ponies tossing their heads and skirting away from her. She sat there, frozen as the wizard came up from the back of the line and Kíli guided Poppy off to the side, Fíli helping Kai off her horse and sitting her down on the grass.

"Kai, what's going on?" Fíli asked turning her head to face him, but she just shook her head.

"What's happening to me?" she whispered and her older brother pulled her into a hug while Kíli explained to Gandalf that she had just gasped and shouted for the wizard to come over.

"What happened, Kai?" the dwarf asked but she just shook her head once more, shaking and trying to wrap her own head around what had happened. But soon, she felt herself pulled away and she was looking into the ages old eyes of Gandalf.

"I was sitting at the table in the inn. And then I dozed and I woke up out here," she explained unsteadily and Gandalf frowned, putting a hand on her shoulder as she began shaking.

"Gandalf, what is going on?" Fíli asked, voice laced with worry. "She's never been like this before..."

"Fíli, Kíli, can you give us some space please. Just go up to your uncle and tell him she's having some elvish problems," Gandalf said placatingly and shooed the siblings off. He looked around at Balin and sighed. "Balin can you tell Thorin to move on? We'll catch up." The dwarf nodded and clapped his legs to the sides of his small steed, trotting up to Thorin and relaying the message. After casting one more worried glance towards his niece, he called the command for the company to move on and soon they were vanishing in the trees, Kíli and Fíli lagging behind and casting furtive glances over at their sister until they were practically dragged along by Dwalin and Bofur.

"What is happening to me?" Kai asked again, enunciating carefully in hopes that that would drive the ambivalent man before her to answer directly. Instead, he sat down beside her and pulled out his pipe, lighted it, and began smoking. She sighed in frustration. "Gandalf, for goodness sake, I'm BLANKING! I'll be one place and then be another almost instantaneously, WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Gandalf looked around at her and sighed.

"It seems as though you are manifesting abilities similar to those of your mother. It may be stress induced, or just because you're in a new world right now. But it seems as though your mother is definitely starting to show through in your lineage." Kai hesitated, unsure that she had heard correctly.

"My mother." Her voice was flat, trembling. Gandalf nodded. "You knew her? You _knew_ who she was and you didn't tell us?!"

"Yes. Yes, yes, and yes. You were happy with your uncle, and your uncle for the first time in a very long while, had a smile on his face. I felt that it was best to let things...unfold." He paused to take a few deep breaths of his pipe before continuing. "She is quite a person, your mother. Powerful, smart, beautiful."

"_Is_. She's _dead_, it's was," she protested, in denial. Gandalf shook his head.

"Oh, no, Kai. She's far from dead, believe me. She doesn't know you are still alive, though. It will be a pleasant surprise, I can tell you that." Gandalf hesitated and looked down at her wrist, reaching out and lifting it so that the back of her hand was facing them. The sunlight reflected off the bracelet and sparkled in the sun. "I could even tell you your name," he said, in a manner that said he was half paying attention. She looked at him and shook her head.

"No. No, you're lying. My mother is _dead_. She _died_, she was _murdered_ by orcs!" she shouted forcefully, drawing away from the man. "No elf has that sort of power! NONE! They aren't _supernatural_!"

"Some of them are," he answered, voice ambiguous and truthful at the same time. She shook her head and backed away.

"Why do you know more about me than I do?" she asked, sickened and mounted Poppy, driving the horse to a gallop in an effort to catch up with the others. However, she was so distressed that she ran full speed around a corner, right into a sprinting, smaller figure.

"WOAH!" she shouted, pulling Poppy up into a rear and pivoting her so that she neatly missed the trembling hobbit before her. She smiled and then started laughing. "Welcome, Mr. Baggins. I am surprised you were able to run that fast. Come, let me give you a ride." Before Bilbo could protest, she had reached down to grab him from the back of his jacket and lifted him effortlessly into her saddle. There was a funny little squawking noise as Poppy lurched into a run again and they sprinted full speed ahead, racing back to the line of ponies that was the company.

"Guess who signed it?" she called and amidst many whoas and hey's, the line came to a stop and all the dwarves looked around, expressions disbelieving and happy. She trotted up to Balin's side so that the hobbit could pass the slightly crinkled paper to the older dwarf. With a twinkle in his eye, Balin took the long contract and inspected it carefully, drawing a pocket-glass from his saddle pack so he could in fact read what he himself had written. Then, just as the silence was getting to be slightly awkward, Balin smiled and placed both the document and the makeshift glasses into his pocket.

"Everything appears to be in order. Welcome, Master Baggins, to the company of Thorin Oakenshield," he said with a grin adn there were a few cheers; however, Kai noted that Thorin still didn't look too impressed.

"Give him a pony," he said bluntly. "He looks ridiculous on that horse, and don't try to tell me Poppy can carry two this whole voyage!" he snapped as his little dwelf opened her mouth to protest.

"No, no, no, no, that-that won't be necessary, thank you," Bilbo began as he clumsily fell off Poppy with some help from Kai, who was feeling slightly put out by her uncle's behavior towards Bilbo. It wasn't the hobbit's fault that he was a peace lover. He was just raised that way; the least Thorin could do was not take it out on the small person. He was rather quite nice.

"I-I'm sure I can keep up on foot. I- I-I've done my fair share of walking holidays, you know." Kai rolled her eyes and started Poppy up on a walk again. The poor thing clearly didn't know how far he'd be walking. "I even got as far as Frogmorton once-WAGH!" His speech was rather uncouthly cut off as Nori and Dori rode up beside him and hoisted him up onto another pony, leaving him awkwardly in charge of the pack animal. Kai exchanged a glance with her siblings and discretely mimed Bilbo falling off as the pony beside her neighed and tossed its head, making the poor hobbit look quite uncomfortable and terrified.

"Come on, Nori, pay up. Go on," came Oin's voice and Kai looked around to see Nori, who didn't look pleased in the least, throw a sack of money to Oin and soon, before she knew it, she was dodging sacks of money flying all about her head, and soon she too was joining in in the general laughter as her brother Kíli got hit square between the eyes by one of the small leather pouches.

"What's that about?" Bilbo asked and Kai listened in to the wizard's response.

"Since when was _he_ back?" she asked Fíli, and the blonde dwarf shrugged.

"Don't rightly know," he muttered back and Kai fixed the old man with a glare. "What's with you?"

"Nothing," she responded, voice short.

"Oh," Gandalf began, suddenly casting an eye about at the front of the group. "They took wagers on whether or not you'd turn up. Most of them bet that you wouldn't," he added, voice amused. Bilbo frowned in thought.

"Huh. What did you think?"

"Hmmm," was the only response Bilbo got, and Kai reflected how over used that response was for Gandalf. However, she jumped slightly as a small pouch of money flew past her head and Gandalf caught it, stowing it away in his saddle bag with a twinkle in his eyes. Thorin scowled over his lost money and twisted back around to face the front. "My dear fellow, I never doubted you for a second."

Just as he was about to answer, Bilbo sneezed rather violently, and Kai began searching her bags for the spare handkerchief she found that her mother had tucked away inside her vest as she had been leaving. She had since then placed it somewhere else, she just had to remember where...

"Ugh...all this horse hair, I'm having a reaction," the hobbit groaned and began his own search of his pockets for his handkerchief. However, he too was unable to locate the elusive scrap of material and he looked around in mild shock.

"No, no, wai - Oh. Thank you," the hobbit awkwardly said and took the maroon handkerchief brandished in his face by the Dwelf beside him.

"It's one of my spares. Sorry, there may be some blood stains on that from out little expeditions as children," Kai commented, gesturing to her and her siblings just as the hobbit went to blow his nose, eliciting a very horrified expression from the halfling. The dwarves laughed at his face and up at the front, Thorin shook his head in annoyance.

"Move on."

"You were lucky Kai had a spare, Mr. Bilbo Baggins!" Gandalf laughed. "But you'll have to manage without pocket-handkerchiefs and a good many other things, before we reach our journey's end. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you; the world is ahead."

"Way to be over dramatic," Kíli muttered to his siblings, earning a smirk from Fíli, but Kai was off in her own little world again. "She's doing it again - " he complained, but suddenly Gandalf reached forward and pushed Kai a little bit. Suitably spooked, the dwelf started, looking around in horror before Gandalf simply shook his head.

"It's alright. You'd just gone," he said and Kai sighed in relief, nodding her thanks to her new body guard against her own mind. Instead of allowing her mind to wander, which lead to problems, she focused on the landscape around her. For hours that stretched into the whole day, they passed through the beautiful lands of Middle-earth, forests, hills, plains, and mountains. While most of the dwarves' focus was on each other and laughing at jokes and old stories, Kai, Fíli, and Kíli had eyes only for the world around them. Bilbo frowned and looked over at Gandalf before gesturing to the siblings.

"What is it with them?" he asked as they pushed at each other before fawning over some other little aspect of the natural world they just came upon. At one point, Thorin had to call Kai back from chasing a butterfly.

"KAI! LEAVE THE BUG ALONE!" he shouted in a manner that clearly stated that he thought he shouldn't have to be saying such things, but she managed to grab the beautiful monarch in her hand before returning to her siblings' sides.

"Sorry uncle!" she called.

"What are you a dwarfling?!" he responded, voice tried and exasperated. Balin began speaking to him placatingly, and Kai reached out to put the butterfly on Kíli's nose, Fíli and the girl laughing as their brother tensed up and went cross-eyed watching the small insect. The way he was looking at it you would have thought it was a dangerous spider.

"They are siblings, Bilbo, and they were raised in the most uncommon way: with the adventure and drive of dwarves, but with the all seeing eyes of the elves... They are wondrously close and view the world with the eyes of eternal children." There was a sad note to his voice and the wizard slipped off into reminiscing.

"What is it?" the hobbit asked and Gandalf sighed, looking down at him.

"They are always the ones who suffer the most. And the ones who lose everything," he answered, and Bilbo kept the cryptic response in his heart as he watched the three of them go gallivanting across the country side. They seemed so happy and to Bilbo it seemed true: only ones so happy could be so scarred by the horrors of life that he was sure they would encounter.

As the sun was setting, the company slowly came to a halt as they consulted their various maps, trying to find a decent camping spot. Eventually, they decided on the edge of a cliff. It was strategic and gave them a good view if anyone tried to attack. It seemed that everything was timed perfectly: as soon as they finished setting up camp, gathering firewood, setting up supplies and watch posts, the world was plunged into an inky blackness. But it seemed only a select few couldn't sleep and to Gandalf it really was no surprise who couldn't.

Gloin was snoring loud enough to wake the dead, tiny flies getting sucked into his mouth every time he inhaled, and getting released back into the air, disoriented, when he exhaled. However, the poor bugs couldn't escape as the cycle repeated before they could regain their sense of direction and flee. Bilbo watched for a moment, but was soon too disgusted by what he watched and he got to his feet, walking around to try and induce sleepiness, to derive a sense of inspiration by the rest of the sleeping company. Gandalf, Fíli, and Kíli were awake and gathered about the fire. Kai was standing over by Poppy, grooming her horse and whispering to the animal in soft, low tones. Seeing a possible companion, Bilbo walked over to stand beside her, pulling an apple out of his pocket in what he thought was a secretive manner and walking over to his pony, stroking her muzzle and holding the apple out to her.

"Hello, girl. That's a good girl." Kai smiled at him.

"See?" Bilbo looked around guiltily, but she waved it away. "They grow on you." She looked back to Poppy and rested her forehead on the white fur of her horse, gazing into the dark, intelligent eyes. "Sometimes it seems that they get more than humans do..." Bilbo nodded and looked back to Myrtle.

"It's our little secret, Myrtle; you must tell no one. Shshhhh!" he hissed as she started grumbling at him, searching for more apples in his pockets and Kai was about to laugh when that sound returned. That dreadful, dreadful sound.

A scream. And it was a scream that wasn't human. Or elvish, or dwarvish. Bilbo started and Kai grabbed his hand, guiding him over to the fire. Kíli and Fíli had sat up a bit straighter and were looking about themselves in mild worry, though it was more caution.

"What was that?" the hobbit asked, fearful.

"Orcs," Kíli answered, looking around. Kai felt a shiver run down her spine at the sound and she inexplicably felt a massive fear rise up in her gut. There was something burning deep inside, something that was so close to sheer terror that she tried to push it away. A scream drifted through her mind, followed swiftly by a real world screech of another orc. At the sound of the scream and Kíli's word "orc" Thorin jerked away and sat up, swiftly standing. But in her mind, the world was snowing, and fear was a sharp metal tang in her mouth.

"Orcs?" Bilbo asked, clueless. He had no idea what it was, but he didn't like the sound of it.

"Throat-cutters," Fíli answered, voice serious, but with a tinge of pranking in there. "There'll be dozens of them out there. The lowlands are crawling with them." Kai took in a sharp breath through her nose and moved to grab the nearest rock, steadying herself. Gandalf frowned slightly, watching her.

_She was cold. The air was whipping around her. Why was the world moving so fast, she was happy when they had been nice and still by the fire, listening to the songs of the two people with her. What were those screams? Why was there salty water in her mouth? Why did she feel like crying? Why was the nice lady crying? Why did the world suddenly get dark what is - _a horrifying image came to her mind and she saw flashes of red, horrible, horrible creatures that looked like they were from a nightmare -

"They strike in the wee small hours, when everyone's asleep," Kíli said suspenseful, and Kai felt some dangerous emotion bubbling up in her stomach. "Quick and quiet; no screams, just lots of blood." Then, she put a finger on it. Anger. She was really, _really_ angry.

Bilbo looked away in fright towards Gandalf, as though begging for the wizard to counter what the brothers were saying. However, Fíli and Kíli simply looked at each other and began laughing and Bilbo looked very peeved when he realized that he had been pranked. But Kai was having none of it and she stepped in front of her uncle, face a mask of pure hatred. Her siblings looked at her confused.

"You think that's _funny?_" she snarled in disbelief, voice heated and dangerous. Thorin backed off, sensing the explosion about to go off. "You think that's _FUNNY!?_"

"Oh god, Kai," Fíli began and stood up, immediately apologetic. "I'm so sorry, we didn't -

"We weren't thinking, I'm so - " Kíli tried, but she rolled right over them.

"I was _orphaned_ by an orc raid!" she said in disbelief. "My parents - they, they were torn apart, they - " Her breath started coming in raggedly as the sheets of red filled her mind once more. "And you think that an orc attack is _funny__?!_" Bilbo looked between the two of them, interest piqued. "I remember it, you know!" Thorin's expression went slack and he felt something cold settling in his stomach. How could she...she couldn't -

"I remember it all. Or as much as my mind could understand. I saw the world fly by so fast. I felt tears on my face, I saw my parents' scared expressions. I felt my mother kiss me goodbye. I was lowered into a tree cavity, and then I saw the blood. I saw the _orcs_. The - the _yrch_." Gandalf's eyes widened as she used the elvish word for orc. How did she - "I remember my father calling them that. I remember their fear! And god, the nightmare! And yet, you _mock it! You MOCK it!" _

"Kai - " Fíli tried, but Kai only pushed by him to vanish over the boulders, moving off to sit on her own. Thorin gaped at his two nephews, appalled by what they had done.

"You think a night raid by orcs is a _joke?_"

"We didn't mean anything by it, honest," Kíli offered hopelessly but Thorin simply shook his head in disgust.

"No, you didn't." He walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked out over the valley, wanting to get rid of everyone around him by immersing himself in the landscape. "You know nothing of the world."

Bilbo looked over at the two siblings with pity, wishing more than anything that there was something he could say to make them feel better. He rather liked the two of them...despite the fact that they had threatened him at his house. But still. Instead, he watched Balin approach them, hoping that the older dwarf had some sort of comforting advice for them.

"Don't mind him, laddie. Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs. And I don't mean just your sister Kai. His hatred goes much farther back than that." Atop the boulders, Kai leaned a little closer. This was a nighttime tale that she hadn't yet heard. "After the dragon took the Lonely Mountain, King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient dwarf kingdom of Moria. But our enemy had got there first." Kai gasped inaudibly as she felt herself dragged to a time far ago and far away and she struggled to find sense in the mayhem before her: The battle of Azanulbizar. Thousands of dwarves and orcs were passing through her as though she were a ghost as they fought before the gates of Moria. She couldn't tell friend from foe in some cases but soon she saw Thorin, Thror, Thrain, Balin, and Dwalin fighting fiercely, dangerous and malicious. These weren't the people she knew now, not that she had known Thror or Thrain.

Suddenly though, a monster that looked like it was from a nightmare, marched to the front of the group; a massive, pale orc stormed up to the front, swinging its mace like a club and killing dwarves like it was nothing. Kai screamed in anger, running forward, but only passing through the monstrosity of nature. She could only watch, not interfere. She heard Balin's voice reverberate over the battlefield.

"Moria had been taken by legions of Orcs lead by the most vile of all their race: Azog, the Defiler. The giant Gundabad Orc had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin. He began by beheading the King." Kai watched in horror as Azog challenged Thror and knocked him to the ground, raising his hand moments later from the sea of dwarves to brandish the head of her great-grand uncle, throwing the head to bounce and roll to the feet of a dwarf beside her which she saw to be Thorin.

"NOOO!" Thorin screamed and Kai felt shivers go through her at the anguish and terrible pain in that expression. Balin's voice returned and the battle continued, violent and bloody. "Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief. He went missing, taken prisoner or killed, we did not know. We were leaderless." The sense of hopelessness and fear descended into Kai's very core. "Defeat and death were upon us." She watched in paralyzed horror as the orcs overpowered the dwarves, and her kin fled for their lives; the young girl could only watch in horror as her people were cut down as they ran, and she felt sick as she realized the stench of blood, the cacophonous noise of metal on metal, metal on flesh...this was war. _This_ was what she was running to. Erebor would be a blood bath.

"That is when I saw him: a young dwarf prince facing down the Pale Orc." Kai could barely bring herself to look at her uncle facing down Azog. Her fear was too great. She could just as easily see Kíli or Fíli in her uncle's place and could see their eyes go blank as the mortal blow was struck. But instead, she watched as Azog knocked Thorin's shield and sword away with his mace, sending her uncle tumbling down an embankment to land in a heap on the ground.

"He stood alone against this terrible foe, his armor rent…wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield." _Oakenshield. _Thorin _Oakenshield. _Her horror turned to wonder as she filtered out the terrible violence to watch her uncle deftly avoid Azog's attempts to crush him with an oaken branch. Azog swung down one last time, and with her heart in her throat, Kai watched Thorin grab a sword lying nearby and swing it up to cut off Azog's left arm, his mace arm, from below the elbow. A sense of savage pleasure filled the Dwelf as Azog clutched the stump of his arm, howling in pain. She listened contemptuously to Balin's over voice as Azog was rushed into Moria by other orcs as her uncle lead the dwarves victoriously back into battle, shouting "Du Bekâr! Du Bekâr!" _To arms! To arms!_**  
**

"Azog, the Defiler, learned that day that the line of Durin would not be so easily broken. Our forces rallied and drove the orcs back." Kai watched in what seemed like a time lapse as the orcs fell about her and dwarves pushed the foul creatures back or hacked them down where they lay. "Our enemy had been defeated. But there was no feast, no song, that night, for our dead were beyond the count of grief." The intruder of the memory could only watch helplessly as Dwalin and Balin walked into view, sick with war and grief. "We few had survived." The battlefield was covered in the corpses of dwarves and orcs alike, but Kai had only eyes for her slain kin. Despite herself, tears slipped from her eyes and slid down her cheeks as she watched the surviving dwarves weep with one another over their loss. A younger Balin and Dwalin embraced before her and put their foreheads together as they wept. Balin, still weeping, looked up and saw Thorin framed in the sunlight, holding his oaken branch. Even to the spectator of the memory, Kai could feel the aura of power and just incredible awe that radiated from him. Despite her own anguish over the devastation, she felt her eyes dry of tears and pride swelled in her.

"And I thought to myself then, there is one who I could follow. There is one I could call King."

Kai gasped and pulled herself out of the memory, looking around to find who had put a hand on her shoulder and who had helped her down to the fire. She met the unfathomable gaze of Gandalf. There was something confused and...was that baffled? in his gaze. Had she, Kai daughter of Dís, baffled Gandalf the Grey?

Upon hearing that sentence, Thorin turned away from his post at the edge of the cliff and dropped his manner of not listening to Balin's narrative; the entire Company was awake at that point, and some of the younger dwarves were standing there, staring at him in a sort of awe. Fíli and Kíli's expression clearly were asking why Thorin hadn't told them of this before, while the others had a sense of wonder and respect about them. Thorin walked between them toward the fire, looking up to meet Kai's soft, sad gaze.

Were those tears on her cheeks?

There was something more to those elven eyes, something akin to pure understanding. He nodded once to her and she nodded back. However, Bilbo wasn't done with the story.

"But the pale orc?" he protested, stuck at the plot hole he had uncovered. "What happened to him?" Thorin's expression grew dark and he stalked away.

"He slunk back into the hole whence he came," he snarled. "That filth died of his wounds long ago."

But as Kai looked at Balin and Gandalf, noting the significant glance they gave each other, she couldn't help but feel that her uncle's assumption wasn't entirely true. But her mind was reeling from the memory she had seemed to access to really care about the fact that Azog was still roaming free.

**Come, my dear readers, who is Kai's mother? Should be quite obvious by this point... :) Sorry for the long wait. As i put on my profile, I've been having finals. **


	11. Chapter 11: Ponies

**A/N: Sorry I've been gone so long...let's just leave it at I've been having a bad case of fandom feels (Torchwood) and momentarily lost the energy and will to write. :( Longer chapter as a reward.**

**And now to address a complaint review by guest Kaia:**

**First off: it's a slightly AU FANFICTION. It's not going to be 100% accurate, it's not meant to be 100% accurate. As long as I'm spelling names correctly and getting the general gist of what's going on, I'm good with my work. I apologize if that offends you.**

**1) I'm not really concerned with exact age differences. As long as I hit somewhere in the ball park of their age differences (Fili is older than Kili but they're still close in age), I'm okay, because I'm not a Nazi Tolkien follower where every detail has to be exact.**

**2) I wrote the story based off a transcript I found online that so far has been word for word accurate. It did not specified where Thorin was going, and when he spoke about Dain, I therefore assumed it was the Iron Hills. My apologies if I didn't pour over a Middle Earth map or dig my copy of the Hobbit out of my moving boxes to double check. But if it makes you feel better I can go and change that if you like.**

**3) Due to my story being slightly AU, that means that I changed it on purpose to Nori and Dori because I felt that they didn't get to do as much in the actual movie, which is what I'm basing this off of. Seeing as the story circles around Thorin and his family, I wanted other dwarves to get some more "screen-time" in if you will.**

**4) ...did I put that? WHERE, I NEED TO FIX THAT! *scrambles around searching for it* Okay that was fixed, sorry about that.**

**And in answer to your final questions: Kai's parentage and the elves in the beginning...well, that's just a mystery isn't it? **

**Sorry for taking time out of my reader's reading time, but I felt I had to address that complaint. BUT NOW TO THE STORY. XD**

Kai looked up at the water droplets slipping and sliding from the leaves and branches above her, flinching as the rain splashed down onto her upturned face. Beside her, Kíli and Fíli were for once, not doing what she was doing and instead were slouched over in their saddles, huddling under their many layers of clothing in an attempt to keep some aspect of their body dry. Frowning slightly, she looked around at everyone else as they walked along the forest trail. She was the only one who didn't look wet and miserable. But now that she thought about it, her wet clothing was rather uncomfortable and within a few minutes, she was just as downtrodden as the rest of them.

"Here, Mr. Gandalf," Dori's slightly strained voice suddenly came in the rather morose silence. "Can't you do something about this _deluge?_" With an almost bemused twinkle in his eyes, Gandalf twisted around in his saddle, throwing a look at the grumbling dwarf and the equally expressive looks of discomfort on the rest of the company's faces.

"It is _raining_, Master Dwarf, hardly a deluge," he stated simply, as though it were a pure fact of nature that he had no control over, which it was. "And it will _continue_ to rain until the rain is done. If you wish to change the weather of the world, you should find yourself another wizard." He said this last part with an air of finality, turning back around to face the front once more, contenting himself with admiring and scouting out the world about him. Unseen by the wizard, the hobbit frowned, brow furrowing as he rode along, thinking.

"Are there any?" Bilbo asked curiously and Gandalf turned his head ever so slightly to the right to indicate that he was listening to their burglar's question.

"What?"

"Other wizards?" the halfling clarified, realizing that he had been a bit vague with simply "are there any?" Kai looked around at her sopping wet brothers to see if their expressions showed any indication of knowing the answer, but they seemed just as curious to hear the wizard's response. In fact, she noted as she looked around, everyone seemed to be eager to hear his response.

"There are five of us," Gandalf finally said, thinking back on those old friends and acquaintances. Judging by the time it took him to recollect all their information, he didn't seem to have given them much thought in a long time. "The greatest of our order is Saruman...the White. Then there are the two Blue Wizards..." Here he trailed off, a slightly puzzled expression appearing on his face. "You know, I've quite forgotten their names." He seemed to be marveling slightly at this realization.

"And who is the fifth?" the hobbit asked, still pursuing the line of conversation. A particularly amused expression crossed the man's face as he thought about the fifth member of the order.

"Well, _that_ would be Radagast, the Brown." He seemed to clearly remember this wizard, Kai thought to herself. Maybe he was more memorable than the others for some reason. But she still felt slighty rankled by her recent conversation with Gandalf and urged Poppy forward a little more. She wanted an answer to a question that had sprung almost unbidden to the tip of her tongue and she heard herself asking it before she could actually look at what she was saying.

"Is he a _great_ w_izard_," she asked, putting special emphasis on those last two words and ignoring the warning look her uncle gave her, "Or is he...more like you?" Even Nori flinched at the tone used and everyone seemed to look a little uncomfortable. Gandalf looked at her, slightly offended, but seemed to see the question behind the rudeness and comprehend to an extent where the attitude was coming from.

"I think he's a very great wizard. In his own way," he conceded as he thought back on his eccentric friend. "He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others. He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the East, and a good thing too, for always Evil will look to find a foothold in this world." Kai unwillingly thought of the elves...this Radagast the Brown seemed like one of the elvish guardians she had read of in some very old books she had encountered in one of her teacher's shelves while she lived with her Uncle in the village. She frowned slightly, a map of middle earth in her mind.

"The forest lands to the east...that _is_ elven territory, is it not?" she asked. When Gandalf nodded, she continued on her train of thought. "If the elves are so reclusive and bent on keeping themselves above and _superior_ to everyone else, why would they want a wizard looking over their own lands?" Gandalf cleared his throat and didn't answer. Somehow, Kai found this more comforting and more fulfilling than any answer the old man could have given her and she sat back in her saddle, contenting herself with flicking mud at her friends and family when they weren't looking. _  
_

After what seemed like hours, the company finally came to a stop, drenched due to the now diminishing rain, and muddy thanks to the combined efforts of dirty clothing getting wet and Kai's dirt slinging. The sun was starting to break through the clouds, revealing a rather beautiful landscape with tangled woods and craggy outcrops surrounding an old, abandoned farmhouse that lay in ruins. Kai dismounted, the buoyant feeling that had been in her as they were riding, the joy that she derived from messing around with the company and her family and receiving scolding from her uncle for her playful actions fading quickly. She let Poppy wander, knowing that her horse was too well-trained to go wandering off. In fact, little could be said for the rest of the mounts with them; the ponies had minds of their own. They were not as loyal as Poppy was...maybe it was an elf thing, she conceded, hoping that it wasn't. She walked beside Gandalf as they approached the collapsed and splintered wood that still traced out the framework of a home.

Something heavy was settling in her chest, something akin to foreboding. Vaguely she registered that Thorin was speaking, though his voice seemed a long ways off, very distant.

"We'll camp here for the night. Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make _sure_ you stay with them." _Yeah, like that was going to go very well, _Kai though to herself before she looked back around to Gandalf, fingers still tracing over the smashed and fragmented remains of a hollowed out gourd that had most probably been used to hold water. It had been decorated with shaky lines that clearly had been a picture. But judging by the poor detail and the confused nature of the drawing, Kai determined that it had been a child's.

"A farmer and his family used to live here," Gandalf muttered, voice heavy with something close to sadness. Kai felt that feeling in her chest drop down to her stomach. She looked again at the gourd, at the markings made by the loving, caring hands of a child. Upon closer examination, she saw that nothing had been removed from the home...it had all simply been smashed.

"What happened to them?" she whispered, not sure why in fact she was whispering. It seemed respectful. She knelt down and pulled a doll out from under some fallen boards. Her small, bean-bag like body, was homespun, clearly cleaned often since the fabric was worn and the dyes faded. It had been well-loved, taken care of. In fact, there were signs of repair-work stitching on the arms and legs.

"They may have simply left," the wizard commented as he looked around; clearly, he didn't think so but was going with the least drastic option. She frowned and stood up, holding the small figure in her cupped hands.

"If they had left, their daughter would have taken _her_ with them." Gandalf looked over her shoulder at the small doll and his frown deepened. Behind them, still sounding far away, Thorin was still giving orders.

"Oin, Gloin."

"Aye?" the red-bearded dwarf asked, turning to his leader.

"Get a fire going," the king under the mountain commanded, turning back around to face the other direction, practically ignoring the "Right you are" that indicated that his mandate was being carried out. Kai nearly started as Gandalf's hand closed on her shoulder and began firmly but steadily pulling her from the wreckage.

"I think it would be wiser to move on," he advised. Kai looked around at him, noting the worry and almost fear-like emotion in his face. "We _could_ make for the Hidden Valley." Thorin's reaction was quick and mirrored wordlessly by his niece as she pulled herself free of the wizard and marched purposefully off towards the other end of camp to help her brothers with watching the ponies.

"I have told you already, I will not go near that place!" he snapped and added, in a lower tone, "and I am not the only one..." Ignoring the dwarf's underhanded and tacit indication of Kai, Gandalf pursued his topic.

"Why not? The elves could help us. We could get food, rest, advice - "

"I do not _need_ their advice!" Thorin interjected, sounding rather like a dwarfling in his protest.

"We have a map that we _cannot_ _read!"_ the wizard protested. "Lord Elrond could help us!"

"_Help?_" The dwarf seemed almost bitterly amused by this notion. "A dragon attacks Erebor, what _help_ came from the Elves? Orcs plunder Moria, desecrate our sacred halls: the Elves looked on and did _nothing_. You ask me to seek out the very people who _betrayed_ my grandfather and _betrayed_ my father!" _A plague on the stiff necks of dwarves! _Gandalf thought to himself in frustration as he tried once more to bring Thorin to his side.

"You are neither of them." Thorin remained unswayed, and the man grew angry. "I did _not_ give you that map and key for you to hold on to the past!" The dwarvish king suddenly grew haughty and the tone used was surly and insolent to say the least.

"I did not know that they were yours to keep." Barely refraining from throwing his hands up in the air in defeat, Gandalf stomped off in anger, ready to abandon the company to the wolves if they were going to be so stubborn. He brushed past Bilbo, barely sparing the startled young man a glance as the hobbit jumped.

"Everything alright? Gandalf, where are you going?!" he asked, suddenly afraid. There was no way that he wanted to stay with a bunch of dwarves for an unknown length of time. They didn't even like him!

"To seek the company of the only one around here who's got any sense!" the old man barked, clearly rather annoyed with someone. _Oh I can't imagine _who_!_ Bilbo thought, rather annoyed as well, casting a hidden, quick glare at Thorin.

"Who's that?" the hobbit asked, hoping that for some reason it would be someone nearby so that he knew Gandalf was within shouting distance. That they wouldn't be abandoned completely.

"Myself, Mr. Baggins!" Well, there went that hope. "I've had enough of dwarves for one day." With that, he mounted his horse and was soon riding off into the distance, soon vanishing from sight and leaving many of the company feeling much smaller and a lot less confidant than they had been a few minutes before.

Thorin was the first to speak in the light of the startling turn of events. Even Kai, Kíli, and Fíli had come out of the trees briefly to watch the departure of their wizard. "Come on, Bombur, we're hungry." Soon, everyone was scurrying back to get to their jobs that they had been assigned. The dwelf's keen ears picked up their burglar's question, and she waited for her old friend to speak, for she too wanted to know the answer.

"Is he coming back?" Bilbo asked, fear and nervousness clearly showing in his voice. Balin looked at him and the gleam of uncertainty in the wizened dwarf's eyes did little to settle the hobbit's rampaging nerves and sent her gut churning with fear and worry.

Kíli, Fíli, and Kai walked along through the woods, their mounts in tow, the elf jumping at virtually every sound she heard, every rustle that reached her ears. When she dropped to a crouch and pulled her knife on a harmless bunny hopping through the undergrowth as he nosed around for the sweeter mosses closer to the ground, Fíli finally had enough.

"Kai, what is it with you? You're making us all nervous, so will you please calm down!" Her head snapped around to face him and she stood up, sheathing her knife in that well-practiced movement, walking forward to tower above her brother.

"_You_ were not walking through the ruins of that home. Whatever killed those people is still here!"

"How do you know it wasn't a fire and they had to leave? Or a really bad storm?" Kíli asked her skeptically, though his expression clearly showed that he himself didn't think much of his own theory. His sister gaped at him and laughed at his - in her eyes - plain idiocy.

"Did you _see_ any scorch marks on those ruins? Everything was _smashed_ to bits, no belongings had been removed! The daughter would have grabbed her doll...she loved this thing." She showed her siblings the clearly cherished toy she had slipped into her and they too began to frown. "I'm telling you, something killed them. And it can't have been too long ago, so it must still be around here. That gourd they used for water was still damp on the inside! Don't you get it? We're setting up camp in their most recent hunting ground!"

"How do you know there's more than one of them?" A bird squawked loudly overhead, making Kai jump and draw her blade once more. The two dwarves began shifting uneasily on their feet, casting looks into the shadows around them. She turned to face Fíli, who had asked the question, expression worried and grim.

"Think about it. There was no blood, no remains human or otherwise, everything was decimated...they would have had to be big and there would have had to be a few of them otherwise there probably would have been some mess over there. I mean, the farmer had a family...he would have done anything to protect them. Unless he couldn't." She clenched her hand around the doll before letting it slip from her fingers to land, forgotten, in the center of a fern.

"Then maybe we should move back closer to the tree line..." She simply scoffed though at her brother's offer and moved on, voice becoming high and bitter.

"Oh, don't worry about it though! I mean if orc raids are a joke, this should be the greatest prank in the history of middle earth!" Kíli flinched and looked to his brother for some sort of support. The blond-headed sibling simply shook his head in near bewilderment and moved along the vague trail that lay before them, leading the ponies behind themselves. "I think here's good." She began driving sticks into the ground and pulling each horse over to tether them so they didn't go wandering, her siblings coming over and acting from her example without speaking. Finally, Kíli broke the silence.

"Look, Kai...I'm so sorry. We - I shouldn't have said those things about the orc raids. I - but I _really _didn't mean anything by them you have to believe me!" Kai bit her lip and continued working, driving a stick into the ground so hard that when she hit a large rock hidden beneath the surface, it broke, sending a splinter of wood into her hand.

"IN THE NAME OF AULË!" she shouted and jerked her hand away from the offending branch, cradling her injury close. "_Ow_..."

"Let me see," Fíli muttered, reaching out to take her hand, but she quickly turned away, marching over to sit on a rock and examine to what extent she had injured herself. "Kai, come on..."

"I can deal with this myself!" she snapped, glaring at them through her hair as it dangled in her face. Fíli held his hands up at shoulder height to show he wasn't going to touch her but walked over to sit beside her, looking down at her palm, wincing as he looked at the large shard that was embedded in her skin. Despite her initial declaration that she could deal with her slight problem, it soon became apparent that she couldn't even touch the fragment without hissing in pain. Finally, Kíli came and sat beside her, grabbed her arm and pulled it into his lap, peering at the sliver.

"Don't. Touch. It," she said through clenched teeth as he poked and prodded the skin around it. He looked over at Fíli pointedly.

"Wouldn't dream of it..." he said absently and his older brother wrapped his arms around Kai to hold her still and in a quick movement, Kíli had grabbed the offending stick in his sister's hand and yanked it out

"OWWW!" she howled, leaping off the rock and dragging an unexpecting Fíli with her, driving him to finally let go and crash painfully to the dirt. "KÍLI, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Not believing his luck at not also receiving any measure of Kai's anger, Fíli sat up and moved to go seek shelter by the ponies. "YOU STAY RIGHT THERE, I'LL DEAL WITH YOU LATER!" she shouted before tearing off through the trees after the younger of the two brothers. Suitably cowed by her tone, the remaining sibling sat himself down on the rock and waiting, weighing his options.

_I could sit here and wait for Kai to come back...or I could help out my brother..._

Finally he decided that helping out Kíli might pay off more in the long run more than listening to an angry elf and ran out after his siblings, leaving the ponies to mill about as far as their tethers would allow, completely unsupervised. Two of the least wise or wary of the lot wandered to the end of their lead ropes, nosing around in the dark and barely had time to whiny in protest when two large hands grabbed them around their middles and hoisted them off the ground, taking them away into the darkening woods.

By the time Kai had finally caught up with Kíli, both were so out of breath that when the youngest of the siblings tackled the dark haired dwarf, they simply collapsed into an out of breath heap on the soft forest floor. The archer grabbed a fistful of the detritus on the ground, hurling the decomposing leaves and fragments of sticks into her hair.

"Oi!" she shouted at him playfully, and went to throw something else at him, stopping and hissing briefly in pain as she used her injured hand. "Ow." She hissed between her teeth as her brother took her hand in his own and pulled out a length of cloth from his belt.

"Keep this for emergencies," he joked with a twinkle in his eyes and wrapped it firmly around her hand, tying it off so that it was tight enough to keep the palm and the open cut protected, but not restrict her movement. He frowned slightly as he saw the red blood that had trickled down her wrist and dabbled his own fingertips.

"Hey. It's just a cut. We'll see much more before this is all over," Fíli said, dropping down beside them and Kai rolled over, grabbing his braid and yanking as hard as she dared without facing serious repercussions.

"OW! YOU LITTE - "

_Apparently my definition of that wasn't so hard isn't the same as Fee's..._she thought to herself before she scrambled to her feet and started sprinting once more through the trees, casting laughing glances over her shoulder at her angrily pursuing sibling, and a rather alarmed looking Kíli who _was _saying something about ponies, but who cared at this point? She laughed and ran even faster, leaping over fallen logs and weaving between saplings and thick tree trunks. Apart from a slight buzzing in her ear, where Fíli's leather cuffed hand had whacked her, she felt good. She was running across a forest in the dying light of day, with the smell of trees and freshly wet soil and being chased by her two favorite people in the world, heart beating too fast 'cause of adrenaline...all the stuff that told her she was alive.

And she was loving it.

* * *

The three siblings had long since ceased in their mad chase through the woods, having gotten their playful blows in on each other and had made their way back to their "pony pen", much to the relief of Kíli who had been nearly going insane the whole time out of worry for their horses. In fact, neither Fíli nor Kai could remember the last time that their brother had been so obsessed with a task given to him. _I__t's slightly disconcerting that this newfound concentration and devotion came at the hands of...ponies..._Fíli thought and turned his rising laugh into a cough.

"Something funny?" his younger brother asked, and he shook his head.

"No, no, nothing at all." He busied himself with braiding twigs together. He needed to do something, keep his fingers occupied. He looked around in the night gloom to where Kai was standing, leaning against a tree, looking off into the distance towards the tree line where the faint glow of the rest of the company's fire. There was an air of sadness about her, an air of worry.

"He's been a long time," she whispered and sighed. The blond dwarf frowned.

"Who?" She turned around to face him, brow furrowed in concern.

"Gandalf." Kíli scoffed and looked up from his hands resting on his knees.

"He's a wizard! He does as he chooses," he told her, as though it should be clear and she rolled her eyes turning back to face the outer rim of the forest. However, his tone assured her that there was nothing to worry about and she sighed once more. Then, coming to a decision, she nodded and looked out over the herd of ponies, walking forward to sit between her brothers and rest her head on Fíli's shoulder. The world seemed so serene just then...the three of them sitting against a log and looking out over the peacefully cropping and chewing the grasses around them.

But then, something hit her as odd, and she sat up a bit straighter. And then, her expression became borderline horrified and she stood up, eyes roving over the herd before them. Fíli looked up at her.

"What's wrong?" Her response was short and tense, and brought the two dwarves next to her scrambling to their feet in equal alarm.

"Where are Daisy and Bungo?"

* * *

Back at the campsite, Bofur was dishing out and passing around bowls of soup for each member of the company, allotting their specific amounts, ensuring that their rationing was clearly enforced. Then, remembering that three of their group were off in the forest, he quickly grabbed three additional bowls and filled them with servings of the savory stew.

"Oi, Bilbo! Take these to the lads, will you?" he asked, and, balancing them very much like a waitress, the hobbit took the offered dishes and moved off towards the tree line, smirking slightly as he heard the conversation continuing behind him. "Stop it, you've had plenty!" Bilbo could just see the look Bombur was giving his sibling and laughed to himself, dispelling his nervousness about entering a strange wood to try and find three people who rather liked pranks...he didn't like the direction his thoughts were traveling in. However, his fears at being jump-scared were unfounded as he reached the area where Kíli, Fíli, and Kai were standing stock still, watching the ponies. It almost seemed as though they were taking their job a bit too seriously, standing there like sentries to a throne room.

Sighing Bilbo walked over and stood between them, offering the bowls of soup. The halfling's brow furrowed as the two dwarves and elf made no move to take them and continued to stare fixedly into the dark, eyes wide and unblinking.

"What's the matter?" Bilbo asked tentatively, looking between them. Kíli's voice was slightly tense as he responded.

"We're supposed to be looking out for the ponies." Bilbo nodded slowly as though this were clearly obvious by their behavior. His next question was cut off by Kai's voice to his right.

"Only...we've encountered a slight problem," she admitted, looking around at him, expression very worried. Bilbo's frown deepened.

"We had sixteen..." the dark headed dwarf began and his brother finished off the statement.

"Now there's...fourteen." The hobbit, accompanied by the other three, walked over to mill around between the horses, trying to find out, for the hundredth time it seemed for the siblings, if in fact there were two ponies missing. Noting the calculating look on Bilbo's face, Kíli supplied his answer for him.

"Daisy and Bungo are missing," he supplied, voice tense as he tried to wrap his head around the enormity of what was going on. Their hobbit seemed just as dazed as the rest of them.

"Well, that's not...that is not good at all." Kai sighed in exasperation and turned on him, expression disbelieving and annoying.

"No, we hadn't realized that!" Her brothers ignored her outburst, used to this sort of caustic sarcasm when she was stressed or worried. "We just lost _two_ ponies from _right_ under our noses!" Bilbo frowned in thought.

"...Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

"Uhh, no!" Fíli's response was quick and vehement, with a bit more emphasis on the noise of hesitance at the beginning. Kíli was shaking his head in a manner similar to his brother's tone and Kai backed them up on that decision.

"Let's not worry him," she said pointedly and walked around the herd once more, trying to find any sign of where they went. The hobbit nodded and then frowned, thinking. Slowly his expression grew amused.

"Wait - how _did _you lose two ponies from right in front of you like that? Not exactly easy for them to just disappear." He looked at the siblings with a mischievous, almost Tookish glint in his eyes as he started piecing together the broken image before him.

"Well, uh...um," Kíli began, portraying a _complete_ image of confidence, Kai thought sarcastically. "You see, uh...hmm - "

"We got side-tracked...slightly. Sorta," Kai finally said in the awkward and yet pointed silence that followed, tone saying that was as far as any of them were going to elaborate. Fíli took up the conversation without much lag time for Bilbo to get curious again. He knew exactly where those energies could be directed that would be useful.

"As our official burglar, we though you might like to look into it," he stated, starting off slowly as he made up the sentence as he spoke. Soon, the hobbit found that the situation was reversed and he was now the center of attention. The halfling cleared his throat and looked around, trying to find things that were out of place, that would help him point out something useful and not look like an idiot. Finally, his eyes lighted upon some trees recently uprooted and laying on the ground, as though some large child had ripped them up from the soil like a weed. Well, it was a place to start.

"Well, uh...look, some-something big uprooted these trees," he began, pointing. Kíli nodded.

"That was our thinking," he added, driving the hobbit to add something else so that his deductions weren't completely moot and useless. He took a few steps closer to the fallen giants and continued in an halting tone.

"Something very big, and...possibly quite dangerous," he finished with an air of finality, looking around at the others. From their expressions, they had clearly come to the same conclusions. However, when Fíli looked up, he reached around to grab Kíli's arm and pointed into the darkened forest.

"Hey! There's a light." Kai immediately stepped forward, pinpointing the glowing prick in the gloom. "Over here! Stay down," he beckoned and the four of them quietly ran through the forest towards the light the blond dwarf had seen, coming to stop behind a log when Kai whispered the words,

"Fire. It's a fire, get _down!_" As they crouched in a tense silence, Bilbo still laden with his three bowls of soup, Fíli looked around at them, expression serious.

"So apparently Gandalf was right..." he breathed, and Kíli finished his thought, like the two often did.

"We weren't alone." Harsh laughter drifted towards them from the large forms hunkered down around the warmth. The discordant sound sent shivers down Kai's back and she fought the urge to shudder. Both brothers seemed to stiffen and bristle simultaneously, torn between the urge to run and hide or stay and find out more. Seeing this, Kai leaned forward.

"What is it?" she whispered. Her brother's one word response was enough to make her blood run cold.

"Trolls." Bilbo looked like he just wanted to vanish into thin air, and Kai couldn't blame him. Trolls had a reputation for being nasty, and she had no desire to purposely go and have a run in with them. However, when her siblings took off to go and get closer, she swore softly in dwarvish, grabbed Bilbo's arm, and dragged him along, ignoring his attempts to grab the soup they were deserting on the fallen tree trunk. The group came to another miraculously silent stop behind some trees, watching as two trolls gathered around a large boiling pot and a third, massive troll walked towards the fire, carrying a pony under each arm. And of course the hobbit, having developed a close affinity for the furry beasts of burden recognized the monsters' newest victims. ******  
**

"He's got Myrtle and Minty!" he whispered in indignation. "I think they're going to eat them, we have to do _something!_" A light lit up in Kíli's eyes as the three siblings turned to look at their companion in mild disbelief.

"Yes; you should," Kíli agreed, moving behind the halfling so he could push him further into the open. "Mountain trolls are slow and stupid, and you're so small!"

"N-n-no-" Bilbo tried to stutter in protest, and Kai's horrified expression was turned on Kíli once more.

"No!" she scolded, tone reprimanding in the extreme. Kíli tried to pull his whole innocent "what!?" face.

"They'll never see him!" he protested as though it should be quite obvious how fool proof his plan was. Beside him, Bilbo was still stuttering away. He turned to address the hobbit and Fíli, seeing enough logic in the plan joined in with shoving the hobbit forward."It's perfectly safe! We'll be right behind you," he assured the hobbit, and Kai gaped.

"We _will?!_" she hissed, voice jumping an octave as she stared in horrified disbelief. He tried to subtly wave her aside and Fíli jumped in to reassure their hobbit that they weren't planning to just dump him and leave him to the trolls while they saved their own hides.

"If you run into trouble," he instructed, expression very collected and serious, "hoot _twice_ like a barn owl, _once_ like a brown owl."

"And how's _that_ supposed to help him?!" Kai asked, exasperated as the two brothers successfully shoved Bilbo on his way, grabbing Kai and quickly making a run for it to vanish into the dark. Gazing at the challenge before him, the halfling began whispering Fíli's instructions to himself, trying to remember which way it was, which owl corresponded to which number, and failing dismally. **  
**

"Twice like a barn owl, twice like a brown - " He broke off, frowning. "Once like a brown?" He paused and turned around. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" His expression turned rather aggravated as the forest behind him was now empty. "Bloody dwarves," he grumbled and set off for the outer rim of the campsite, planning to edge around until he got to the pony pen. The three trolls were sitting around the fire together, grumbling and snapping angrily at each other. From snippets of their conversation, Bilbo decided Tom was the one who brought the ponies, William was wearing a dirty vest and appeared to have a cold, and Bert was the cook and subsequently wearing an apron. Bert started grumbling.**  
**

"Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it don't look like mutton again tomorrow!" he moaned, poking morosely at the fire and stirring the contents of the pot before him. Directly behind Tom, Kai, Kíli, and Fíli were all crouched and hidden in a dense cluster of foliage, watching the ugly brutes argue back and forth about dinner. They seemed to be rather dim, as Kíli had said, Fíli noted as they watched Bilbo sneakily creep farther and farther into their campsite. Kai looked like she was ready to jump out of her skin she was so tense while his younger brother just seemed eager to see whether or not his plan was going to work.

"Well, it's better than the leathery old farmer," Bert conceded and Kai hissed angrily. So she had been right about the family being evicted from their home not by a fire or some natural disaster. These horrid creatures had eaten them. Subconsciously she gripped the hilt of her dagger, and Fíli put a hand over hers in comfort. She looked around and met his eyes, and nodded, relaxing her hold on her weapon. "All skin and bone, he was. I'm still picking bits of him out of me teeth."

"Go get Thorin and the others," Kai whispered and turned to face her siblings.

"Wait, he could pull this off, you never know," Kíli protested, but Kai scowled and flicked him between the eyes to get him to shut up.

"These are full grown trolls, will you _please_ go get uncle! A hobbit won't stand a chance, I don't care _how scared_ you are of getting in trouble!" she added in a venomous hiss as both siblings looked rather uncomfortable. "They killed and ate the farmer. Now is one of your guys' chance to get away from it all before we're eaten, too." Before she could say anything more, Fíli swore under his breath and reluctantly stood up, careful to hunch over so he wasn't showing himself to the trolls engrossed in their mealtime preparations.

"I'll go get uncle." He started to turn, but faced his siblings once more. "You _owe _me." With that he was leaving the premises, careful to get a safe distance away before sprinting full out, trying to get back to the campsite without falling flat on his face. Kai and Fíli nervously watched him go and once his shadowy frame finally faded, and, swallowing, the sister stood up, hunching over so she was nearly bent double, and moved closer to the tree line surrounding the troll campsite. She tuned out anything that Kíli tried to hiss to her and smirked as he grumbled quietly to himself and came to a stop beside her. The troll William was sneezing again, and Bert grabbed him by the nose, shaking his whole frame by that small extension of his body.

"Oh no you don't!" he snarled and threw his companion down, ignoring the pitiful series of ow's that erupted behind him at the action. "Sit down."

"Kíli..." she breathed and pointed. Bilbo, still unseen, had managed to dart behind the massive trolls in the brief conflict and Kíli grinned, clapping Kai on the shoulder.

"See? Told you he could do it." None the less, Kai mouthed careful at the hobbit from her hideaway, knowing that Bilbo couldn't see her, but still taking comfort in the small action. "Don't worry, he'll be fine." But both siblings seemed to tense up and start clenching and unclenching their hands in nervousness as their burglar slipped behind Bert and tried to untie the ponies. "Not good, not good..."

"Now you're singing a different tune," she muttered through clenched teeth, heart pounding in her throat as the knots didn't come free. She actually jumped and hissed as William turned around towards him, and Bilbo just managed to duck out of sight. Kai tensed once more and seemed to be deciding between charging or not when Kíli grabbed her leather overcoat tightly in his fists and gave her "don't you dare" look, making sure that she was firmly grounded beside him. That slow, stupid troll was speaking again and Kai focused on taking deep, calming breaths.

"I hope you're gonna gut these nags. I don't like the stinky parts." Scowling at the pickiness of his traveling partner, Bert swung his ladle to smack William in the head with the heavy utensil, shouting over the subsequent squeal of pain.

"I said _sit down!_" While the back-birth of the group continued on with his whining, Tom put his two cents worth in.

"I'm starving! Are we 'aving horse tonight or what?" he complained, sitting back on his log.

"Shut your cakehole!" the chef snapped. "You'll eat what I give ya'!" As William pulled his handkerchief out, Kíli saw the glint of a blade and quickly prodded Kai's side, pointing wordlessly to where Bilbo was edging closer to the troll himself, aiming to steal the knife right off his belt. Kai frantically started shaking her head and broke free of her brother, moving towards where Bilbo was cowering, trying to stop him before he did anything else stupid.

"Kai, get back here!" Kíli whispered after her, but there was no stopping her. He sat down once more and began thinking to himself that Fíli had better be coming soon: this wasn't looking like it was going to turn out great.

* * *

Fíli was sprinting through the near pitch black woods, toppling over a few times as his feet caught the lips of hidden tree roots and half-exposed rocks. He just wanted to scream in anger every time one of the tendrils or branches of the forest caught his clothing and were pulled tight, holding him in place. All this time he was waisting pulling out his knife and cutting himself free was putting his family in danger back there with the trolls. Finally, the light of the company's fire began to shine through the trees and plant life and he started shouting.

"UNCLE!" Fíli bellowed, and everyone jumped at the shout that shattered the peaceful night. Bombur started and woke up from where he had fallen asleep like a great massive log and looked blearily in every direction for this loud noise that had taken him away from his dreams of cheese and meats.

"THE PONIES - KAI AND KÍLI - BILBO - " Everyone was getting to their feet now, instinctively moving towards their weapons. Finally, he ended his scattered and garbled message with one word that he hoped would galvanize his kin into action. "TROLLS!" Thorin's eyes widened and there was a mad scramble for weaponry, neglecting armor that they had removed in favor of speed, and Fíli was nearly bouncing from foot to foot in an endeavor to make the process speed up and soon they were running back into the woods, Thorin shouting at him.

"HOW DO YOU LOSE THE PONIES, YOUR BROTHER, YOUR SISTER, AND OUR BURGLAR ALL AT ONCE?!"

Fíli deigned not to answer, conceding that it would make his uncle chase him to Erebor brandishing his sword.

Meanwhile, things weren't going well at the troll camp either. Tom was complaining about the food and when they were going to eat once more.

"Me guts are grumbling, I've got to snaffle something." Kai coughed softly at their vocabulary, mirroring the smirk on her brother's face, who was beside her once more. Had their situation not been this dangerous, she would have laughed at their language choices. "Flesh I need, flesh!" That didn't sound amusing at all and her moment of entertainment was gone. William was about to sneeze once more and reached behind him for his handkerchief, and Kai's eyes widened. Instead of grabbing his cloth, he grabbed Bilbo who had been moments away from stealing the knife, and used him as a tissue instead.

"Oh, that's disgusting!" Kíli mused aloud, thoroughly grossed out, and face mirroring that sentiment quite eloquently. Kai gaped.

"Kíli! They've GOT Bilbo and all you can say is that's disgusting?!" she hissed at him and both watched in horror as the scene unfolded before them.

"Argh!" William squealed. "Blimey! Bert! Bert! Look what's come out of me 'ooter! It's got arms and legs and everything." Bilbo, unable to do much else, lay there stunned like a dead fish or something, processing the fact that a giant mountain troll had sneezed all over him. Kai fought the urge to drop her head into her hands and say her prayers now. The other trolls gathered around to take a look at this strange new discovery.

"What is it?" Tom asked, peering down at it. William scrunched his nose up.

"I don't know, but I don't like the way it wriggles around!" William shook Bilbo off his napkin, still covered in snot, onto the ground, where he quickly scrambled to his feet. Beside Kai, Kíli was shaking with silent laughter and she swatted his head, looking back to the scene in front of her with utter fear and worry. However, instead of being eaten on the spot, the trolls seemed to be intrigued by the novelty presented by a hobbit.

"What are you then? An oversized squirrel?" Tom asked, reaching out to poke and prod at him but thinking better of it. When the halfling opened his mouth, Kai could already tell a terribly delivered lie or maybe - probably - the truth was going to come out.

"I'm a burglar - uhh, _hobbit_," he quickly amended and William frowned, looking up at the others. Kai stared wide-eyed hoping against hope that somehow a miracle would arrive and solve all of this.

"A Burgla-Hobbit?" he asked in bafflement, seeing if the others had heard of such a thing before.

"Can we cook `im?" Tom asked, taking a step forward. William grinned.

"We can try!" he laughed and lunged forward to grab Bilbo, who dodged, only to be cornered by Bert.

"He wouldn't make more than a mouthful, not when he's skinned and boned!" Tom piped up once more.

"Perhaps there's more Burglar-Hobbits around these parts. Might be enough for a pie!" Bilbo looked absolutely terrified at the idea of being turned into a pie of any sorts, and he didn't much fancy the idea of being skinned or boned either. So, when the trolls once more lunged for him, he simply ran like a headless chicken in any direction that would save his hide from being these creatures' dinner.

"Grab him!"

"It's too quick!"

As the trolls tried to catch Bilbo, the small hobbit ran about in the most bewildering patterns his frantic brain could think up, trying to dodge them. It seemed to be working, too, as Bert accidentally smacked William with his ladle while trying to hit Bilbo, and William teetered off to the side to almost hit Tom. However, his brief luck was short lived as Tom swiped his legs out from under him and held him upside down in the air.

"Come here you little...Gotcha!" Kai was about to rise and run out from cover, but Kíli hauled her back to the ground.

"Look out there, Kai. They're all on their guard right now...now is not our moment," he said quietly and she reluctantly agreed, settling down and waiting for the proper opportunity when she would rain hell fire down on these..."Kai. You don't have your bow do you?" The Dwelf's eyes widened as she began patting the ground around her. Kíli sighed. "Great. Wonderful."

"Hey, neither do you!" she snapped, attention turning back to the situation before them.

"Are there any more of you little fellas `iding where you shouldn't?" Tom asked, looking like he wanted to shake Bilbo up and down like a rag doll.

"Nope," Bilbo said, voice nothing more than a squeak that clearly said that he was lying and Kai made a mental note to teach him how to lie more effectively. But still she made no move to get to her feet and rush out of her cover. The branches and leaves that scratched at her face seemed to hold her back in some way, as though telling her to bide her time, wait for the proper moment...again, she really hoped that this almost innate understanding of the "thoughts of plants" didn't come from elves. But her gut clenched at what played out next. The rather dim troll spoke up.

"He's lying," he sneered, peering down at Bilbo.

"No I'm not!" the halfling squeaked, not sounding convincing to Kai or Kíli in the least. Apparently, the trolls didn't think so either and William laughed once more.

"Hold his toes over the fire. Make him squeal!" he cackled, and the Dwelf in the shadows seemed to bristle with anger and indignation.

_That's it. That's the _final_ straw, they are _not_ going to hurt Bilbo! _

Just when Kai was about to get up and run out on her own, submit to the dwarvish fire that burned in her veins, Kíli suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet, sprinting the last few yards to the brush lining the troll's campfire, adrenaline starting to pump through their veins. The girl's brother burst from the dense undergrowth first and brought his sword down in a vicious, humming arc to open a wound in Williams leg, sending him to the ground, howling in pain. Kai, not knowing what else to do, simply followed him, brandishing her blade like it was a full on battle sword while internally wishing that it was at _least_ a few inches longer than the dagger it was.

"Drop him!" Kíli shouted in a tone that surprised all there. It was commanding, in charge, and gave no room for argument or opposition. However, Tom didn't seem to get that and frowned in bafflement. Could this little thing possibly be telling him to surrender?

"You what?" he countered in disbelief, staring at the short and angry dwarf as though he were a shiny little novelty that would taste good on a spit.

"He said, drop him!" Kai shouted angrily, gaining the troll's attention as well. Rotating her wrist in a practiced movement with her knife, she flicked it up in the air and caught it by the tip, preparing to throw it at a second's notice if the ugly troll didn't drop their hobbit immediately. Momentarily startled, the three giants forms before them stared, slowly gaining a look of pure amusement. Tom gave a garish smile and threw Bilbo at Kíli who awkwardly had to tip his sword down and catch the halfling at the same time without impaling his falling form, rendering himself defenseless. But as the two of them went tumbling to the ground, Kai felt fear settling in her chest, the confidence she felt in having her brother beside her vanishing quickly. Here she was, armed with a knife only, facing three full grown stone-trolls. Seeming to sense her fear, they started lumbering forward and many things seemed to happen at once.

With an angry yell, she threw the knife, randomly aiming for the the vague blundering form of William, seeing that he was the slowest of the lot. A loud wail told her that her blade had found some sort of mark, and she dove to the side, somersaulting across the ground to avoid a downward strike from the boulder sized hand of Tom. But just as she was thinking to herself that this had to be the end, the rest of the Company came charging out of the bushes, yelling and brandishing their maces, blades, and all other assortment of weaponry. They truly were rather vicious to behold with her brother Fíli and Thorin in the lead.

"KAI!" the blond one shouted and threw her bow at her, which she caught gratefully, whipping and arrow from her quiver, nocking it, drawing the string back, and releasing. Bert, who had been about to grab Bilbo who - bless his soul, Kai thought - had been trying to get to the ponies, squealed in pain and jerked his hand away, gaping at the large shaft of wood that had been driven into it. She barely had time to enjoy the results of her work, as the dwelf joined her friends and family in fighting the trolls, distracting them as her kin wove and leapt between their opponents' legs and over their reaching hands, hacking, slashing, and hammering their legs. Kai noticed her hands were trembling as she tried to load and fire with her normal, reputable speed. But this was different. This wasn't shooting at targets, this was shooting at something trying to kill you, and it was scaring her. She was panicking, freezing -

_"Remember, focus on your target. Don't think of anything else around you, just focus on what you're_ _doing."_ Kai could almost feel Kíli's hands moving her arm and shoulders into position.

_"Also, it's important to be calm and stay calm, alright? Just focus on what you're doing. In real life when you fight someone, think of it as Fíli moving targets around, right?" _Noise, chaos, and fear seemed to fall away from Kai, settling her in a peaceful, quiet zone as she picked out her target.

_"Good, just pull back the string and aim. That's it, just like I showed you." _The bow came up and the feathered tip brushed her lips. _"T__ake a deep breath and hold it right before you shoot."_ Her breath came in a smooth intake and stopped. _"And just...release.__"_

Tom howled in pain as an arrow sliced up into his forearm like a sliver, hindering him at the last possible moment from grabbing Thorin and hurling him across the clearing that was their mini battlefield. Kai laughed briefly in victory before loading another arrow and turning to face where the rest of the dwarves were fighting.

"KÍLI!" she screamed as one of the trolls lurched forward to grab him and her heart leapt into her throat as he slid on the loose forest floor and escaped the large form falling towards him. Anger fueled her that someone would try and hurt her brother and she sent off another five arrows in quick succession. But then she saw what she had seen only once before in a memory. Dwalin went full battle mode it seemed to her as he jumped through the air, dodging a swipe of Tom's arm and slamming his heavy mace into the side of his head, sending fillings flying through the air, before sending the heavy metal smashing into the troll's knee. This was the warrior who killed to save his family and friends, and the Dwelf didn't envy the trolls their situation. Meanwhile, Ori's quick aim with his sling saved Nori as William picked him up, and she continued to rain arrows on their upper bodies, trying, where she could, to give her family openings to attack.

But her frantic hands stopped moving as she saw Bert's hand close around Kíli's body and lift him up off the ground. Fear seized her body in a vice-like grip and she could only watch in horror as a million different endings to this situation played out in her mind. His dark eyes found hers and he shouted at her,

"KAI, RUN AND HIDE!" He brought up his sword to try and free himself, but the angle was too awkward; he couldn't find any purchase. Then, two swords wielded by their wonderful Fíli descended upon the offending monster's arm, and Bert yelled in pain, throwing Kíli through the air so he came to skidding crash before Thorin who looked around in anger and horror at something that hung high above the dwarves' heads. Dwalin's expression grew downright frightening and he gripped his massive hammer-like mace a little tighter and the sounds of fighting slowly stopped, the only background noise that of the drumbeat of hooves as the ponies made their mad dash for freedom.

Kai dropped back into the shadows and tried to come closer, stopping as Balin's gaze found her and tacitly yelled at her to stop where she was, remain crouched in the undergrowth as their steeds sprinted past her and fled the scene of their near demise. _At least Bilbo succeeded in _his_ task..._she thought wryly, and nervously followed her mentor's orders. Tom and another one of the trolls were holding Bilbo by the arms and legs, brandishing him before them. The leader of the three looked absolutely mad. The dwelf's heart pounded in her heart and her mouth and throat were dry as parchment; she clenched her bow so hard her knuckles turned white and her hand began shaking. _This is not good. Not good. At all._

"Bilbo!" Kíli shouted and got to his feet, hefting his sword and preparing to charge and cut down the small hobbit by himself. But his uncle's arm and shout restrained him.

"No!" The dwarf's nephew looked at him in almost betrayed surprise, and Tom pressed his ultimatum.

"Lay down your arms, or we'll rip his off!" he sneered and Thorin looked at Bilbo in frustration before firmly and angrily planting his sword in the ground, the blade quivering with the force of the thrust. Kíli, thoroughly angry at his uncle for giving in so quickly, threw the weapon to the ground and contented himself with glaring at their foes before them, trying to ignore the sounds of surrender around him as the rest of the company's weapons clattered noisily to the forest floor. Ori seemed to take a leaf out of Kíli's book and threw his sling to the dirt, scowling.

"Where's Kai?" Dwalin asked, looking around above him, trying to find her tall frame. "Balin, where's - "

"_Shut up you fool!_" the warrior's sibling hissed, trying to keep the fact that one of their number was missing still secret, and Thorin suddenly seemed to realize her absence as well and began looking into the shadows. _  
_

"Uncle, where is she?" Fíli breathed, stepping closer to his relative. Unseen by any of them, Kai's brown eyes were burning with ferocious concentration as she focused on her uncle's face, repeating the same message over and over in her head, hoping against all forces in nature that she could recreate her fluke at Bag End. When her keen eyesight revealed Thorin's sudden frown, she smiled and laughed breathlessly to herself, silently rising and vanishing into the dark, running along the paths only her feet seemed to be able to find. When she reached their camp, Poppy was tossing her head, ears flat against her head, teeth grinding, and legs stiff. Her chest was rumbling with warnings of danger, and Kai patted her mare's neck, whispering comfortingly.

"I'm sorry, girl. But we need to run. Okay? We need to run." She swung up into the saddle and urged her steed to a swift gallop, vanishing into the night. As the trolls trussed them all up like some form of meat - which no doubt they were, Thorin thought bitterly - he reflected on his niece's voice, the words he had heard in his head.

_I'm getting Gandalf. _Please_ don't do anything stupid._

Thorin sighed and swallowed as their captors seemed to set up a rotisserie frame.

_Whatever you're doing, Kai, do it fast._


End file.
